Shooting Stars
by Gogeta SSGSS
Summary: Goku has died of natural causes. The Androids have killed the world's greatest fighters. Gohan and Trunks are left alone to fight an all out war. What happens when a Kryptonian girl, lost in time and space, finds her way to this war torn timeline? Future Gohan X Supergirl
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own DC or DB

This world is a desolate one; thick layers of ash covering most of the atmosphere, black specks of soot falling from the sky where it snowed and polluted acid rain in the damper regions. It used to be colorful, happy, filled with life and promises of adventure but, now? It promised only inevitable death.

 **Age 766**

It began with him, the death of the world's greatest protector whom ironically perished peacefully off the battlefield due to a rare heart-virus that took him from the world of the living far too soon. The first three weeks immediately after were average, life went on, and dozens of friends and family attended his memorial and burial on Kame Island. One young warrior payed close attention to the service being given by the old turtle hermit as he pulled his hanky from his jacket and handed it to his mother. He had lost his father before but, this felt permanent, like fate wanted this to happen; the Dragonball's couldn't help this time and for once in his life, he felt like he'd truly lost someone.

It was that very night, when he swore to his mother and friends, slamming his glass down at the table as the timid mingling ceased and everyone turned their head to face him. He swore that night to never feel this helpless again, he'd fight to the bitter end and protect the Earth from whatever threat would come their way. He was a _liar_ as a lie by omission, even an unintentional one, is still a lie.

Six months came and went; the world kept spinning and Goku became a fond memory, people stopped mourning, Chi-Chi stopped visiting his grave every day, and Gohan poured his heart and soul into training to make his father proud. Unfortunately, this would be the same time that two fearsome beings made their presence known in a small city leaving it in pieces, rubble, and death. These two beings were no ordinary fighters, they were hand-made Androids designed to be the ultimate fighting duo, unmatched in power, skill, speed, and strength, and they kept their titles through and through.

Piccolo was encountered first, being the closest to the scene as it happened, he fought alone and died alone. Vegeta came next, finding the Androids to be a challenge was strange but, he was no ordinary Saiyan, he had ascended to the legendary status of Super Saiyan… pity it simply wasn't enough. He fought until he died a painful and stubborn death, alone with his pride intact and his internal organs not _so_ intact.

This left the weaker of the group to fend for themselves, but, they wouldn't lose any other friends to pride and stupidity; so, they fought together. Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, Chiatzou, and Gohan fought with everything they had, combining attacks and strategies and for some reason, they all fell, one by one. Leaving Gohan, a young seven-year-old boy, alone on the battlefield with four dead bodies of his former friends. It was that night, the night he realized the cruelty of this world, the night he realized things couldn't go back and that reality was set. He trembled, fell over in a fit of crying and bleeding; he had been stitched up but, he was already pulling the amateur hospitality done by Bulma. Images of his friends, family, people he grew up around dying one by one to two heartless robots. His long hair sprung up from behind him flickering gold, his eyes flooded ocean blue, and his muscles contracted becoming denser. His aura exploded around him as he pounded into the ground with his bare fists, anger, rage, ruthlessness, this is what drove him and after tasting this bitter power he knew he could never look back at the fun-loving boy who loved his mommy and daddy; he was Earth's only warrior now and he had only one goal. To kill the artificial humans.

…

 **13 Years Later; Age 780**

Explosions engulfed entire buildings, vaporizing hundreds of people at a time, each beam extending out from a single finger, "I'm so bored today; we've destroyed like _all_ the good cities!" A stunning young woman with shoulder length blonde hair and clear blue eyes growled as she stepped over half of a discarded body.

"You're the one who blurted out 'let's destroy all the big monuments first' the second you came out of stasis," A slightly older male pointed out, brushing his raven black hair behind his ear; the pair seemed to be related in appearance and age, most-likely no older than 25 and no younger than 20. They seemed awfully immature as the blonde one sighed loudly, pointing behind her at a struggling civilian and blasting away obliterating him and the building he was leaning against without even glancing, "It's not the same when you don't hear the roar of screaming crowds after the first blast."

"I feel that, 18, nothing beats a screaming human," the boy smiled and turned at the sound of another voice rocketing down from above and landing beside them.

"Unless the screaming human beats you!" Gohan planted his feet on the ground and gulped slightly, it had been an uphill battle against the Androids this last decade and he knew this wouldn't be his last fight with either too but, every battle is won one punch at a time. Beside Gohan another boy landed, slower in speed, smaller in size, and awfully cute rather than threatening and ominous. He couldn't be older than 14 or 15, but his face was one of determination, he held his forearm up in a fighting stance prepared for everything.

"Ready, Trunks?" Gohan asked as his golden aura sparked to life, exploding out around him and coloring his hair glowing gold.

Trunks charged his visibly clear aura, lining and charging his muscles with Ki, "Oh look, if it isn't blondey and short-stack, what can I do for you officers?"

Gohan charged his Ki brighter and tightened his muscles, "You can go straight to hell!" He unleashed a beam of yellow energy at the duo whom didn't flinch at it, letting it pass over them and detonate with the force of an exploding planet, they weren't impressed. Seventeen vanished into the smoke and ash as collisions from inside the mushroom cloud could be clearly heard.

Eighteen smiled and waved at Trunks whom flew into the air, pushing off the ground with his Ki, he propelled his fist forwards with enough force to break mountains but, the fist flew passed its target. Again, and again, he missed as the blonde devil easily countered and deflected each of his strikes; he opened his palms and unleashed a blast attack on his foe, "Masanko!" the yellow explosion vaporized the concrete structures around them but, even as that happened, Eighteen's unsinged hand came from the heated Ki blast and grabbed the boy's wrist cutting off his attack.

"You sure are a powerful little kid but, no little kid'll get the better of me," She held him up in front of her as he pried at his wrist trying to get free.

Gohan blocked a right-cross with his left forearm sending shockwaves across the city, shaking any standing structure left, he dodged a follow up round-house kick and managed to land a beam in the center of Seventeen's chest pushing him into the ground and exploding keeping him briefly occupied. He dropped from mid-flight down to the ground, touching the ground with the tip of his toe which was all he needed to push himself at faster than light speeds through the battle-field, sending his arm down cutting off the connection between Eighteen and Trunks leaving Gohan in the middle. The hero quickly covered Trunks and took a mean purple Ki orb to the back, exploding and tearing up his orange fighting Gi. He flew down to the surface and vanished again with similar speed, ducking behind a slab of rubble and resting his burned back against the cool concrete; he looked down at the unconscious Trunks whom barely managed to avoid being killed by the blast Gohan had tried to protect him from.

"Ridiculous, how could any single being be this strong?" Gohan mumbled to himself for a moment before peaking his head around the corner of his cover, the Androids were searching for him in the wrong direction, perfect.

"So, what was the point of Gero neglecting to give us the ability to sense Ki; seems like an intentional design flaw if you ask me," Seventeen kicked a rock aside as he looked for signs of movement.

"Well, nobody asked you so let's just take some pot-shots and get out of here, blondey obviously doesn't wanna play anymore," Eighteen stuck her hand in the air and surrounded her palm with yellow Ki flooding Gohan's vision.

"Crap," He waited for the explosion, for the intense heat, the ringing in his ear but, it strangely never came; this is when he heard a sonic boom shake the atmosphere. Gohan would never mistake that sound, it was the distinct noise a vessel makes when it enters Earth's atmosphere from space at high speed. He glanced down and Trunks was out cold, this was only slightly inconveniencing as having him in the way of whatever just arrived on Earth could get troublesome. His upper-back area burned with a seething sting but, he learned a long time ago to ignore the pain and push through that threshold.

Eighteen dispersed her Ki and turned on a dime to examine the celestial-object, Gohan peered over a slab of concrete to discreetly analyze the situation. Seventeen aimed his palm at it, being very familiar with man-made air-born weaponry, preparing to shoot it out of the sky but, he failed with the object suddenly made a sharp turn towards the duo faster than even they could react. As it passed them, they all got a good look; the seven-foot-long metallic-pod darted towards the ground shattering the Earth beneath its landing.

"The hell was that?" Seventeen asked putting his palm down and stepping towards the crater.

"Whatever it was, it was fast…" The blonde remarked as she followed her brothers lead.

"What say we go see for ourselves what in such a hurry to make landfall," They both walked through the smoke and peered into the crater with their scanners active, however; they were surprised to find the pod opened and completely empty.

Eighteen smirked and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear, "Wow, I knew this planet was a trash-heap but, for aliens to literally dump their garbage from orbit?"

"Keutik! Garh-olnotak?"

The twins turned to face a tall, fit, blonde woman very obviously lacking any clothing whatsoever; her nude form caused both Androids to be struck with confusion as well as the Saiyan man watching from afar, suddenly he was very glad Trunks' wasn't conscious to see this.

"Is she speaking Russian or something?" Seventeen asked curiously as he stepped closer keeping his eyes on her figure; she was at least 20 years old with long blonde hair falling gracefully passed her shoulders, her blue eyes were so distinct they could pierce the heavens with a glare.

Eighteen scoffed at his obvious gawking, finding it atrocious, "Our scanners would know Russian… she's not from Earth."

"Well she's hot, that's for sure," Seventeen stepped into arm's length with the confused girl approaching with a comforting smile, "And she's not a disgusting human, so bonus!"

She covered her exposed chest and took a step back, "Geeher tawak? Keutik ana Krypton!" she was startled by Seventeen grabbing her wrist firmly.

"I've got your _cripton_ right here, sexy," He was completely taken aback when she shut her eyes in fear and back handed him with ungodly force. The shockwave rippled across the dead city, propelling Seventeen through a street of abandoned cars and into the side of an untouched office building.

Eighteen laughed heartfully, "She just knocked your shit!" her laughter continued as yellow Ki energy lit up through the cracks from underneath the rubble vaporizing the half of the structure that had collapsed on top of him. He stepped from the building unharmed, cracking his neck, "Okay, fine, kill her like the rest then," He aimed his palm upwards and charged an energy orb aimed at her, "If you were more cooperative we could have been best buddies but instead…?" The beam fired and the defenseless woman threw her hands up in front of her face.

"Agh!" a roar of courageous thunder erupted from seemingly nowhere as a golden warrior illuminated like a God came down from the heavens slamming a fist into the Earth and knocking everything off balance, "Kamehameha!" Gohan quickly and fluidly stepped through the motions of the beam technique as it engulfed Seventeens average blast and sent back into a cloud of smoke and ash.

Gohan grabbed her by the wrist as Seventeen had but, this time she didn't feel as though something very uncomfortable and traumatizing was going to happen. His grip felt safe, it felt warm, perhaps the heat of his glowing aura, or maybe she was just cold? She couldn't understand him but, from his expression he could tell their retreat was urgent, the fierce warrior grabbed hold of an unconscious teenager before darting into the city from building to building until they were dozens of miles away.

The woman backed into a corner and slid down her back until her bare-rear hit the dirt; Gohan propped Trunks up before peering over his cover keeping his back to the wall, "I think we're in the clear… they're faster than me though, if they even glanced at my direction when I left…" He noticed the girl with more detail now, she was confused and in tears, covered in ash and dirt, she looked up into his eyes and he remembered what it felt like again, it had been so long, since he'd seen _true_ innocence.

"Can you understand me at all?"

She looked down at the dirt and back to him before shaking her head in denial, not because she understood English but because she could understand what he was asking in general, "Thought so…" Gohan removed his orange Gi leaving only his ragged blue weighted under-armor, he knelt down beside her and wrapped the shirt around her exposed shoulders. She looked up into his eyes with hope that things just might turn out okay, "They should be gone, we're safe for now," he stood and offered her his hand, "Do you have a name?"

She stared confused, completely dumbfounded at his question, "Name? N-A-me?" He grabbed her hand gently and pressed it against his own chest, "I'm called Gohan and you are called?"

She smiled, "Gantha! Chiya so me Kara Zor-El!"

It was Gohan's turn to blink in confusion, "Which part of that was your name?" He rubbed the back of his neck nervously when she suddenly gripped his wrist with her soft skin and a smile placing it against her own bare-chest as he felt her heart beating beneath it unfortunately his face burned up in the process, "Kara Zor-El; Chiya so me Kara Zor-El," Her face turned red as well but, only because she had absolutely no idea what was going on, that and this warrior was definitely quite the specimen.

…

Gohan, being the gentleman that he was, carried both Trunks and Kara back to their central base led by none other than the world's most brilliant mind and one of the last surviving scientists left to look for answers. The base was strategically built out of view on the side of a canyon over looking a vast ocean, an unnoticeable hole in the wall and it stayed hidden even longer via retro-reflection plates built to mimic the light rays that hit it to simulate invisibility. Only those who could sense Ki could find it without consulting the only three who have ever left and lived that being Gohan, Trunks, and the one and only Bulma Briefs.

After the shields were deactivated, Gohan slowly floated towards a glass structure; Trunks wrapped around his neck and Kara covered only by an orange Gi rippling in the ocean breeze.

Kara turned and gazed up at her savior in confusion, "Ara un zach'o?"

This caused Gohan to frown, not being able to understand her was becoming tedious, "We'll have to do something about how you communicate, I know just who to ask…" Just by pressing his palm against the glass, it lit up bright green around his hand opening a hole in the synthetic barrier before recamouflaging.

"Retro-reflection panels are fully online; signal jamming equipment is fully operational," A young woman in tattered clothing sat at a computer screen barking information towards her superior whom only writhed in anger.

"You damn Saiyan's and your ridiculous fighting-pride is going to be the death of us all!" Kara was surprised by the woman's bright neon-blue hair but, more so by her tenacity and clear leadership skills than anything else, "Trunks had better be okay!"

"He's fine, he just took a decent fall, he should be fine when he wakes up," Gohan allowed two men wearing Capsule Corp jackets to carry Trunks off his back and towards the med-bay.

After taking a deep breath and refocusing her attention, "And who the hell is this?" the rather blunt woman pointed her wrench in the blonde's face whom blinked in confusion, "We don't have the rations for another civilian in here; being a billionaire doesn't mean what it used to…"

Bulma turned around completely dismissing the idea as she stepped towards the array of computer monitors, "How about a civilian who can backhand Seventeen through building?"

She stopped in her tracks, "Excuse me?"

"She landed in a space-ship, during my battle, and when she got out Seventeen tried to grab her _for obvious reasons_ ," Kara blinked as his Gi slipped down her tan shoulder exposing her cleavage to an impressive degree.

"And she just… swatted him away?"

Gohan nodded in confirmation, "As if it was an accident, actually," Kara finally got to her feet, still not understanding the situation, she smiled and grabbed Bulma's wrist quickly placing it on her chest above her heart, "Jai! Chiya so me Kara Zor-El!"

Bulma yanked her wrist back with a frown and turned towards the screens shouting towards her team, "Activate the satellite and scan Pepper Town for tachyonic particles."

Gohan raised a brow, "Tachyons? Temporal radiation? You think she's from a different timeline?"

Bulma put a gloved finger to her chin staring at the data on the screens as they fluctuated, "Maybe, or maybe from a different Universe? Or maybe she just used them to travel long distances in short periods; tachyonic particles are what powered the ship that allowed your father to cross the Galaxy in only six-days, ya know!"

"Commander!" one hacker shouted with a solid demeanor, "We detected traces of tachyons at the sight, however; its not the source, its only a trail leading beyond the satellite's range."

Gohan took notice to Kara again he felt her tug on his hand gently, "Jana o'el? Jiyara ley Krypton?"

"She keeps using the word 'Krypton' maybe that's who sent her here?" He surmised as Bulma sighed and stepped towards the corner of the long row of computer desks where sat a dusty old tool-box.

"Ya know, before he died, my father never wanted to invent anything cliché," Bulma remembered the fond memories of her childhood and her parents, "He didn't want to invent a teleporter or a cure for cancer; he wanted a one size fits all compartment system!" She continued as she finally pulled the device out from its drawer, holding it up in the light and blowing the dust off of it, "He also thought if everyone on Earth could understand one-another, world peace could be a real possibility!" The device was a black square with blue circuitry running across it and after reminiscing on the days of old she tossed it at Kara whom only barely caught it.

"How does it work?" Gohan asked grabbing it from the confused woman and holding it up.

"Place it on the back of her neck; it'll alter the delta and beta waves in her brain so that she can process any language through her own and vice versa," Bulma seemed mostly uninterested but, completely confident that the device would work, "Well?"

Gohan jumped, "R-Right!" He fumbled with the metallic device pulling Kara's long locks out of the way and placing the device on the base of her neck where her spine meets the skull but, even after it slowly hummed to life there was no sign that it worked. Only silence followed until the alien-girl turned to them with a saddened expression, "I do not think it worked at all…"

Gohan grew a smile as a wide as the crater her ship made when it landed, finally he could speak to this mystery girl, "We can understand her!"

"You can? Hey! I can understand you too!" She nearly shouted with joy until Bulma intervened with a more serious tone.

"Now, tell me who you are, how you got here, and what the hell makes you strong enough to hurt Androids?" Kara was unfazed by this simply answering as truthfully as possible.

"Kara Zor-El, space-ship, and the Sun," she looked back and forth between the scientist and the warrior with an unaware smile.

After a long silence Bulma turned to walk away, "I need whiskey and a cigarette…"

…

Inspired by The Sun and The Moon story of a similar nature in this crossover section.


	2. Chapter 2

Shooting Stars

One Month Later-Age 780

After spending hours per day every day learning about Earth's history and lore, Kara had just about gotten the gist of the situation that plagued this planet for over a decade now. In a small conference room containing no more than a single round table and a pitcher of water, Bulma, Gohan, Trunks, and Kara gathered to discuss the ever-looming threat of the Androids.

"Something has to be done!" Kara announced after several long drawn out minutes of silence which to her passed like eons, "Sitting in this base isn't going to help anyone!"

"Agreed," Trunks stated but closed his eyes perceiving what would come next, "Three, two, one…"

Bulma broke her train of thought and slammed a palm on the wooden table, "This base is more secure than the King's Bunker and it's the only thing keeping us alive! What's your idea pretty girl?" She walked around the table without taking her daggers off of the Kryptonian.

"I… well I…"

"You wanna go punch them really hard? Go right ahead, no matter how many times you do, if you even can, they get right back up!" She put a finger in the young girls face spitting venom with her eyes alone, "Ask my husband, or my best friends, or the entire Earth Militia!"

"They may have passed on but, at least they didn't die hiding in a cave!"

"You _bit_ -"

Gohan stepped between them placing his hands on either of their shoulders separating them, "Let's take it easy, have a glass of water, Bulma."

The blue haired scientist turned her head in disgust, "I'll have a glass of whatever I want…" she mumbled under breath in a passive aggressive grunt. The two women had been butting heads recently on which natural instinct to follow now that they have another Super Saiyan level fighter with them, fight or flight? Bulma having seen all of her friends and family fight and die against the Androids was sternly rejecting facing the cybernetic monstrosities until they were certain the results would be in their favor. Kara, on the other hand, wanted to throw caution to the wind and confront them as soon as possible which even Gohan agreed might be a bit hasty for her first month on the battle field.

She had explained her past, she was only twenty-one years old when her Father built a ship for her to escape their planet on. The problem was that her home planet of Krypton was inhabited by sentient life for over a billion years, its natural resources were gone, the sun had long since become a red-dwarf, and the core of the planet was becoming unstable as the inhabitants continued to suck what little energy the celestial rock had left. In short, Krypton was old and her Father and his Brother, her Uncle, were the only two scientists who realized their fate in time to send their children to a better world with better opportunities. The explosion of the planet that followed minutes after the two were sent into space caused her pod to be thrown uncontrollably through the void. This was all she remembered as the next thing she knew the stasis sequence in the pod took over and she opened her eyes here on Earth. Bulma surmised that her pod must've hit a piece of debris that simply knocked it off course sending it to a different planet than her cousins but, the tachyons told a different story. The only way to find out for sure was to retrieve the remains of her ship which was directly in the middle of Pepper Town which was Android territory at the moment as they hunted down every single human they could find.

"What if we just host an extraction, that way we don't fight anyone; we get in and out, Trunks and I can-" Gohan attempted to continue but, was cut off by Bulma nearly losing her mind and tossing the glass of water against the wall.

"I'll be damned if you're taking my Son out there with you again! He's not even six-teen yet, Gohan!"

"Mom!"

"How old was I when I fought Raditz? Or Nappa? Or the Ginyus? What's the difference between then and now!?"

"Because we don't have Goku now, or Vegeta, or Krillin… or anybody to look after such a young boy! He's too tenacious anyways he'll get himself killed!" Bulma crossed her arms as a tear nearly slipped down her cheek, "I can't lose my son, he's all I have left," Silence erupted throughout the room as Trunks stood from his seat, "Mom…" he muttered with a more sympathetic tone.

Gohan was about to insist, however; Kara cleared her throat interjecting in their argument.

"I'll go…" She said blatantly.

Bulma scoffed looking for a moment, wiping her cheeks quickly, "Finally, we agree on something…"

"Bulma," Gohan replied to her insulting comment, "She hasn't a clue what she's doing out there; she wasn't a fighter, she was a civilian!"

"You've seen her power levels! She's stronger than your own father was when he straight up cut King Cold's head off!"

Kara blew her bangs out of her sight, "Okay, I'm not a kid…"

"Hey!" Trunks shouted but fell on deaf ears.

"So, if I want to go get _my ship_ , then I will and neither of you can stop me," She folded her arms across her chest as the blue-haired commander smiled and pointed her finger at her.

"Her words!"

Gohan cleared his throat awkwardly, "I know we've tested your speed and strength to be very impressive, Kara, but these are martial artists we're talking about," he raised his hands in the air waving them towards her, "Perfect fighters that even I can't keep up with most of the time…"

"I don't care! I need to know what happened to me, you said it yourself, someone could be out looking for me!" It was clear as day on her face, the determination, the stubborn need to defy authority, she was young. Too young, perhaps but, just young enough to be blissfully ignorant of the situation eager to prove herself. She obviously didn't have time to mature before she left her home-planet, and perhaps someone was looking for her, _hell_ , maybe whoever finds her can help this planet as a sort of 'thank you'. All this and more rushed through his thoughts as he stared the young girl down, still contemplating whether he should allow her to join him.

"We never trained you properly," Gohan stated bluntly with a defeated look growing in his eyes.

"I wont stay locked up in here forever."

Gohan closed his eyes and took a deep breath just like Piccolo taught him; a calm mind was a sound body and vice versa, how old was he when he fought his own Uncle? Three, and the Saiyans? Four. What about the Ginyus? The point being if he could handle those threats as a toddler than handling the Androids now can't be too dissimilar besides she was right about her Power Level being close to a Super Saiyan's and almost as great as his own but, he couldn't express the caution enough so he sighed and reopened his eyes seconds later, "Fine; we extract the ship and bring it back here… but, we do _not_ want attention from anyone, especially _them_."

"They can't sense power levels, thankfully, so you should be fine to fly in and out at top speed without being too noticeable…" Trunks mentioned tipping his chair back in boredom as his mentor approached him.

"I want you to do twenty Kamehameha's and twenty Masenko's before I get back; and focus on controlling your energy," He put his hand on the boy's head whom gleefully sat up and nodded in agreement.

"Of course, Master!"

The Saiyan man turned to the Kryptonian woman with a knowing smile, "Let's suit up."

…

The shutter to the garage closed down as it slid over the light to the room, a bulb sparked above them illuminating their surroundings as Gohan, Bulma, and Kara approached the armory. "This used to be a Militia outpost before the government decided to wage an all-out war with two teenage death-bots, ya know…" the rest of the lights flickered with power barely lit up at all as they approached the wall.

"So?"

" _SO_ , they left a bunch of their stuff behind!" Bulma approached a long silver cylinder-pod with an old tarp lazily thrown over it, "And after we discovered your power, I figured I'd start a little project of mine, to kill the time."

She yanked the cloth off the tube as the LED's on its metallic-structure began to light up and the inside was revealed by a large solar-lamp hanging over a white female-body suit; Kara walked up to it and put her hand on the glass staring up at it.

"It's a high-density, light weight, friction proof compound with a dwarf-star alloy lining and a durable yet, light and flexible material I used from the old Saiyan battle suits," She marveled at her creation as it hung on the mannequin in front of her, "It's a work in progress but, it's got solar energy already absorbed into it to keep you powered up and it should absorb more while you fly."

Bulma moved to a monitor before pressing a long sequence of codes as the machine lowered the tall mannequin down to ground-level; Kara placed her fingers on the sleeve and ran them all down the lining that practically glowed with white light, "You made this for… me?"

"Well, it's not like it'll fit Gohan…" Bulma chuckled without smiling and continued to type, "Look, I may not like you but, Gohan _trusts_ you and he's the only help I have left so, I have no choice but to play with the cards I was dealt."

The Saiyan flashed her a smile as Bulma turned around with a capsule like device, "This'll capsulize your ship down for extraction; this is how I play."

Kara blinked looking back and forth from her to the suit and back, "Let's play then…" she looked back at the suit and what she was venturing out to do and wondered if she'd ever have the courage to go back out there without Gohan and Bulma's support. It wasn't so long ago that she was practically frightened by her own shadow and now? She was ready, or so she thought.

…

 **Downtown Pepper Town; Age 780; 9:22AM**

They flew through the air at thousands of times faster than the speed of sound moving through the clouds as a blur of motion; as they did so, Gohan peered to his left and watched as Kara burst through a massive cloud leaving a trail of water-vapor in the form of clouds behind her.

"You sure are soaking up the sun; beats the hell out of solar-lamps, am I right?"

"Sure does!" Kara flew closer to him and kept on his lead as they had a fifteen-minute flight left to pass, she wanted to spark a conversation, "So! I know the Androids are super dangerous but, who built them? What's the story on that?"

Gohan frowned, "Bulma didn't tell you?"

Kara shook her head receiving another firmer frown as he looked back to his flight path, "It started with my Father; as a child he faced the Red Ribbon Army which was a group of mercenaries and extremists bent on world domination, when he was thirteen he single-handedly destroyed their entire roster aside from one man. The brains behind the army, Doctor Maki Gero, whom fueled by hate and revenge spent the better part of two decades pent up in some cave somewhere kidnapping people and turning them into Androids."

She could visualize the story in her head, and damn his father had to be impressive to wipe out an army on his own as a child, "Wait? Kidnapping _s_? How many Androids were there?"

Gohan smirked at the thought, "Only two, thankfully. They are Dr. Gero's sole successes but, they don't appreciate his hard work all too much."

"And this guy," She started with curiosity fueling every question, "He's in prison, right? He doesn't get to walk free with all of this, does he?"

Gohan stared at her for a moment as if he'd thought she could figure this one out on her own, "Kara, I know you mean well but, this world is destroyed and it has been for nearly ten years. There are no more prisons or prisoners, police or judges, they're all dead. Including Gero, when the Androids first appeared they told us they killed him in cold blood the moment they awoke from his experiments," He stared back out at the wide-open sky as towers in the distance could be seen with mold growing over them approaching; he thought it best to change the subject, "We should be arriving soon."

Kara felt bad for putting him on the spot but, she had to know the story before facing them again; she'd needed to know why she was punching them in the face as hard as she could. Hopefully, it wouldn't need to come to that and they could get in and out with relative ease.

Suddenly, she saw it, the clearing of buildings surrounding a crater sat amongst the rubble and destroyed city. It was where the last battle between Gohan and the Androids had taken place, it was also exactly where she landed.

"There it is!" She flew down at high-speeds approaching the ground at Mach 50 landing with her feet uncontrollably shattering the concrete and asphalt below her carving her feet into it.

Gohan landed beside her as she slowly approached it; the silver pod was still gleaming in the sun-light wide open with some foliage and mold growing in it. "It's not in the best shape but, I think I can access the computers," she dusted the control pad before turning on the emergency battery, "There; I remember this, it's not too hard," she pressed a few more buttons as Gohan looked around keeping his head on a swivel; He stared into the distance peering through cars and sensing the area for any disturbances.

"I was probably just foggy from the stasis being on a bit longer than it was supposed to be; let's see…" She entered the command code and summoned the stasis log to check how long she was hibernating for and she almost didn't believe it was true, "This can't be right…"

She stared at the time spent in stasis written in Kryptonian, "Sixty-four cycles? How can that be, it didn't feel that long at all!"

"Cycles? How long is a cycle?" Gohan was momentarily distracted by her discovery as she counted on her fingers how to count cycles into years.

"Almost thirty-years!"

Gohan widened his eyes for a moment, she didn't look at all like she was forty-eight and still it was true she was even older than him, technically. He didn't age normally either so it wasn't so odd to find another species that shared that trait, "it's okay, we can figure this out let's just capsulize this thing and get it back to Bulma."

She reached into her pocket grabbing it before they heard a loud chuckle erupting from the distance spurring Gohan to throw up his guard and fierce glare to match.

"Well, if it isn't faggoty Andy and on the raggedy-Anne?" Android Eighteen spoke with a clear distaste in her voice but, almost as though she wasn't expecting them, "You were right Seventeen, they did show up here again." The blonde android toppled over a car laying motionless on its side with a finger as she casually walked over, "A bet is a bet; you can have her."

Kara shook at the sight of the Android, backing away slowly only feet from her ship, the Android began strutting the gap and closing the distance as she quickly stuck the capsule into her skin-tight sleeve.

Gohan stepped between them slamming his feet into the space that distanced them, "Not so fast!" He puffed his chest up and gained a fake grin.

"And oh look, the fake-blonde is back, now you're trying to copy me?" Android Seventeen rounded the corner of a collapsed bank turning and looking at Gohan as he spit his words. The Saiyan tightened up at the sight of the second robotic demon; he could get away from one of them, he has before, but both?

He stepped out in front of Kara putting a hand out in her way, "You're fighting me, not her…" She gasped but, couldn't object spite not wanting him to fight alone.

Eighteen chuckled, "Oh blondie, hold that thought," She vanished in the blink of an eye right crossing him through the air as he hit a building and flew through it, she took off on hot pursuit but, before she had, Kara saw him. Flying through the air, blood slipping from his cheek and surprise overcoming his expression, she saw true fear and froze up completely as things progressed in real-time.

"Hey there, sexy," Seventeen poised as he approached with his hands stuck in his pockets, "I liked your outfit better the last time you were here. This'll do." She stepped back in fear when she saw him but, suddenly her grip tightened; she couldn't let Gohan do this alone specially not because of her, she has the power to fight this time.

She leapt forwards at super speeds and her fist out in front of her aimed for the robotic demon; Seventeen crossed his arms and dipped his head back with a smile, "Oh, so close!" she jumped again determined as ever, grunting each time with effort but, it did no good. Seventeen let out a chuckle before catching her on her next sloppy attack by the throat, "Sorry you may be strong but, you're no fighter…" He tossed her through the air before meeting her momentum with an elbow to the back sending a loud crack through the abandoned city.

Gohan dodged Eighteens advance before hearing the sickening crack echo through the buildings, "Kara!?" Gohan's raven black locks exploded with a golden fury; he caught Eighteens fist in his palm and clocked her chin at ten times the speed of light slamming her through several walls and out the building they were in. He shot out at the same speed towards the sound with an enraged roar he put his foot down on Seventeen's cheek with the force from his approaching speed sending him through the ground and into an abandoned subway station. Gohan picked the nearby barely conscious Kara up bridle style levitating upwards towards her ship; he moved as quickly as possible grabbing the capsule from Kara's sleeve and attaching it to the pod. The building he knocked Eighteen into exploded with a wave of ash billowing through the city streets, "Come on, come on, come on!" an explosion of smoke shrunk the vehicle down into a capsule landing on the ground as Gohan kneeled to pick it up. The ground beneath him shattered from raw force applied from below; a punch, no doubt, ruptured the landscape for miles as the device fell between the cracks of the ground.

Gohan would have screamed if not for the knee slowly crushing his wind-pipe as a demon even faster than his Super Saiyan senses caught him and pinned him down, "Is he stronger than he used to be?" Eighteen asked as she dusted herself off from all the soot.

Seventeen growled holding him down, "Yea, he sure is! I needed to go all out just then, maybe if there were one of us, you'd have a chance but, all ya got was barbie, a weak-ass kid, and two nightmares that you can't wake up from!" Gohan struggled and charged his aura but, it was crushed underneath Seventeen's grip, he screamed but, the only one who could hear him was Kara. She heard him so clearly and plenty loud in her ear, which was just playing this constant ring that wouldn't go away. Was that blood she tasted, iron, sodium? light pierced her eyes and she saw everything, the inner structures of the walls, the insides of houses and huts, in between each crack of every pattern on every single foot of the ground around her. She spotted her capsule and reached for it, she dug through the ground and lifted a boulder to find the capsule beneath some dirt.

"What should we do with the barbie-doll from hell?" Seventeen asked as they focused on how to kill her, she pocketed her capsule as Eighteen appeared and pinned her against the wall of an abandoned building sending cracks through out its structure but, Kara didn't feel it. She felt her cells though, each and every single cell in her body, trillions upon trillions of them, burning in a raging fire. The rage came after the second punch to the face that she endured without noticing until her eyes lit up crimson and suddenly… she exploded. With a scream of intense release her eyes spewed a beam of crimson energy twice the heat of the sun vaporizing everything in her sightline at the time pushing Eighteen back and through half a dozen buildings before they melted and crumbled on top of her. The beam dissipated as did her rage and with an inhale of exhaustion her eyes flickered back to normal, the burning sensation was relieved and smoke drifted from her eyes reeling from the heat.

"Woah, was that her just now that did that?" Seventeen asked as he could feel the heat coming from her in waves, "Eighteen…" He dashed off towards his sister's fiery prison leaving Gohan unattended and choking.

Kara could barely breath and every breath she managed was stressed to the core; her chest hurt, her eyes seared but, her vision was still clear as day and she spotted Gohan. With the last of her strength she stepped towards him before collapsing from exhaustion into the dirt. The Saiyan gasped and stared up for only a second before hearing Kara's body hit the ground, "Damn it…" He coughed, spitting blood from his lungs as he stood and floated towards her gripping her by the waist lifting her up to his side, "Ha!" His aura exploded and he got them away just as the melted sculpture was engulfed in explosions that released the metal maniac. She spotted her through the flames and narrowed her eyes at her unconscious form, "Bitch."

…

Gohan was flat on a medical-cot wrapped in bandages especially around his ribs and neck; Kara sat not too far from him with her head promptly between her hands, attempting not to look as Bulma worked on his bandages quietly.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Kara asked through her fingers, peeking an eye through the gaps in her hair that hung in front of her eyes.

"Nope," The scientist responded bluntly as she put the hydrogen-peroxide on a shelf behind her and removed her gloves, "He's been through worse, trust me."

The Kryptonian was only slightly comforted, "You've never told me how you two met; you seem awfully close," Sher lifted her head as Bulma grabbed a coffee mug and filled it to the brim with the steaming beverage.

"Want a cup?" Bulma asked nonchalantly.

"No thanks…" Kara waited a few moments for Bulma to sip her caffeinated fuel and sit down beside her; the beeping of Gohan's heart monitor filled the silent room until Kara shattered that peaceful silence like glass, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Bulma asked seriously putting her mug down beside them and turning towards the young woman, "Gohan tends to get himself into trouble a lot, he's just like his father."

"It was my fault!" Kara shouted with a forced shout, "I'm the one who wanted to get the ship, I'm the one who attracted their attention, it's all my fault that Gohan-"

Bulma giggled, "Did I ever tell you about the time Gohan saved me from Planet Namek's destruction?"

Kara blinked for a moment, she'd been told very little about the past before the Androids; she was surprised that Bulma of all people wanted to share with her, "No, I haven't…"

Bulma grabbed her coffee giving it one last sip before setting it down once again, "We were on a distant planet to retrieve new Dragonball's to revive some friends who were killed. I never got to see most of the fighting but, I was stuck as the planet was about to explode. Gohan was ready to leave but, he refused to go without me. We had just revived Piccolo, the one whose death took our Dragonballs from us, so he could have wished me back but, he couldn't do it." Bulma looked down at the mildew-ridden hospital tiles and reminisced of her time on Namek when there was still hope. "You see it didn't matter if he could wish me back or if there simply wasn't time to save me and himself, he just knew he had to save me _because that's who Gohan is._ Just like his father."

Kara grimaced and looked back to his unconscious form, "I just wish I could have helped somehow but, all I did was burden him."

The bluenette picked her coffee mug up and sipped from it before releasing a gasp of satisfaction, "You've got the strength, the speed, but… you're missing a crucial element. You need to learn martial-arts if you want to fight Androids."

"I… I don't know if I can do that; what if I fail again and get Gohan killed?"

Bulma took the last gulp of her drink and set it down before standing up, "Then he'll die…" She turned to her and gave a reassuring hand and a smile, "And you'll be the only one left to protect us."

"How come you're being so understanding? So… nice?!" She grabbed her hand and was pulled to her feet.

"I was wrong to be that way with you; Gohan can't do this alone and Trunks' just isn't ready. If we're going to work together than we need to be a team and that means fighting the enemy and not each other," Bulma released her hand and waved for her to follow, "I have something to show you."

They walked down a long hall before reaching a fork that lead either left or right, they stopped in the center as Bulma looked around, "What're we-" she was cut short when she was hushed by the middle-aged broad. She placed her hand on the wall and it suddenly scanned her palm with a blue light that flashed green with approval; the walls split apart revealing a dark room that slowly lit up with LED bulbs. The room wasn't very big but, it was big enough to lay her pod outside its capsuled in the center with machinery and tools all around it.

"The technology is pretty advanced but, it wasn't too hard to crack; I found data files that are running through a translator as we speak."

"That's great!" Kara exclaimed, "This way I won't be a living dictionary for you guys!"

Bulma stepped up to a monitor and began bringing up files from the ships log, "That isn't what I brought you in for; the pod was definitely set towards Earth but, something went wrong during your exiting Krypton's atmosphere that has me stumped."

Kara scoffed, "You? Stumped?"

"I know but, check this out…" the screen displayed a video of her in her pod and another of the same events only outside the pod facing the Planet she was escaping. They watched as she was slowly put in stasis so, they moved to the other point of view; the planet grew smaller as her distance grew until suddenly a beam fired up from the Planet clearly at light-speed not hitting the ship but, firing passed it. The ship suddenly entered a portal where the camera sees the planet disappear behind a void of darkness the feed then goes offline; Kara narrowed her eyes in distaste and moved closer to the display.

"Rewind that last part; that energy looks familiar," Kara leaned in closer as Bulma assisted her and enhanced the video, rewinding to the moment the beam was fired, hitting pause as the girl examined it.

"That looks like… but, it can't be…"

"What?"

Kara looked back to Bulma with a serious face, "Our world was very devoid of any crime, almost a utopia so, when someone did commit a crime they were sent to the Phantom Zone. An alternate dimension where beings are trapped in eternity and that's the beam they used to open it," Her finger tapped the screen for a second before she came to yet another realization.

"This… this isn't even my Universe."

"We don't know that yet," Bulma reassured as she turned back to the space-pod while Kara stood frozen in place staring at the paused screen.

"The stasis log said I was asleep for 29 years," Kara looked down at the keyboard as tears welled up in her eyes, "Someone sent me into another dimension and somehow I came out the other end here."

Bulma put a finger to her chin as she thought, "And once you were in this Universe the navigation located this Earth and headed straight for it." It made sense but it confirmed that there was likely no one looking for her, Krypton was likely destroyed as her Father had predicted so it didn't matter who sent her into the Phantom Zone to begin with.

"Look, you may not be in the right Universe but… maybe this happened for a reason? Maybe, you were meant to land here and meet us?" Bulma put a hand on her shoulder turning her around, "You can help people, you can save lives, Kara. Does it really matter where you do it?"

Kara wiped a tear from the corner of her eye before smiling, "You really think I can be a hero?"

"All I know is you can't change the past but, you can mold the future…" After she said this, something hit her like a ton of bricks; it was so obvious, right in front of her the entire time. The past, the key was in the past, with… _him._

Bulma had been staring into the distance for a minute or two now and Kara decided to wave a hand in her face to check if she was alright, "Earth to Bulma? I get it, I can make a difference, are you okay?"

The scientist turned around and began typing in the ships computer bringing up a list of items all in Kryptonian, "I just had an idea, read this list off for me, in English."

Kara raised a brow and knelt over brushing her hair behind her ear taking a look at the screen, "Hydraulic insulator, carbonized gas-cube, energized star-core-"

"I knew it!" Bulma shouted as she pounded her fist into the ship with excitement.

"Ah!" Kara exclaimed with a confused stare, "What?"

"An energized star-core? That has enough power to run a city for a century by itself!"

Kara blinked, "Yea, it's for inter-galactic travel; everyone had one on Krypton."

"Do you know what I could do with something like that?"

Kara tapped her chin, "Space ship? Super weapon?"

"Think bigger…"

"Time tra-" Kara suddenly realized what the blue haired scientist was trying to convey, "You're gonna try to build a time-machine!?"

"With a star core to power it? I only need a few other things outside the base to get the job done, I could have it done in less than a year's time!"

"And then what?" Kara folded her arms and walked around Bulma analyzing the screen she was typing into, "Kill the guy before he builds them?"

"No, the only people who know where Gero's lab was are either dead or trying to kill us; I have another plan though, remember Gohan's father?"

"I remember you talking about Gohan's father," Kara leaned against her pod and put her hands behind her head, "Didn't the Android's already off him?"

Bulma stood upright with a smile, "They never got to, he died of a rare heart-virus months before they were activated," She stepped over to a row of cabinets and began rummaging through them, "He was a Super Saiyan too, the best of the best, if anyone can make a difference it's him," She stood with a bottle of pills in her hand and a grin plastered across her face.

"I get it now, go back to the past and cure him?"

"Bingo," She placed the cure down on the counter and stepped towards her closer almost whispering range, "You can't tell Gohan, not yet, not until I have something concrete to show for it."

"You want me to lie? I don't know…"

"Please, Kara, he was very close to his father and if he gets false hope it might crush his spirit; promise me you won't say anything until I'm ready?"

"Okay… Okay, fine, I won't say anything."

…

Kara sat at to Gohan's bed-side, she'd given the suit back to Bulma who claimed there were major modifications to be made, and was now wearing a white crop-top with baggy pants and no shoes to speak of, "I'm so sorry, Gohan," she looked away for a moment in self-hatred but, it wasn't long before she felt the bed stirring.

"You got… a pretty good lick… in there," Gohan muttered through a rough cough as his heart monitor picked up its pace, "Eighteen never saw it coming…"

The blonde smiled as a tear formed in her eye once again; she leaned over in excitement and embraced the Saiyan as he smiled and gladly reciprocated by placing a hand on her back, "I'm so, so, sorry! I should've listened, I never should have gone out there."

"It's not your fault, this would have happened either way; but that power you used, what was it?" He asked as they separated and she used her sleeve to dry her tears of happiness.

"I have no clue, I was just backed into a corner and… everything went red," She blinked in confusion which Gohan found adorable as he slid his legs over the edge of the hospital bed sitting up revealing his muscular torso, "Stay down, you'll pull your stiches!" she put a hand to his chest but, he just smiled and pulled it away.

Gohan stood and tightened his eyes in minor pain grabbing his shoulder and cringing at the broken bones, "If we can train you to harness that power, we could finally defeat the Androids, I just know it."

Kara stepped next to him and wrapped his arm over her shoulder for support, "If I agree to train with you will you please lay down?" She gave him a heart-felt smile as he reached up and brushed a strand of her hair from her eyes; she blushed in response and evaded his gaze. Gohan chuckled at this as the pain soon began overwhelming his muscles and he caved, "Fair enough," he coughed as he sat back down on the cot and Kara knelt down to get to eye level.

"So, where does this training start?"

"Ever heard of a little method known as 'gravity-training'?"

…

For the record, this is Future Gohan not Canon Gohan. He is not a passive fighter; the Androids took that from him. He's been Earth's only warrior for nearly 15 years and he's been fighting this war since he was seven years old. He never became a scholar, he lost that trait.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own DC or DB.

Two Weeks Later

Forged in Fire

"Push yourself!" Gohan shouted with his hands cupping the sides of his mouth at Trunks standing on a grassy hill a few feet away, he was powering up with a flowing clear aura of Ki surrounding him, "Dig deep, Trunks!" He smiled at his first pupil as he made significant progress in the last few weeks; his power level had gone up with his training and he could easily rival Freeza's First Form by himself. Impressive, however; useless against an enemy like the Androids. Waves of pulsating energy flew off of the young-teen in jolts as his hair sprung upwards and he keeled over in writhing rage until… something snapped and he lost it all, falling to his knees still not transformed.

"Damn it all!" he shoved his fist through the Earth, upheaving a half-ton chunk of rock, "Stupid, son of a-"

"Language, kid," Gohan stepped forwards handing him a towel with a smile, "I wasn't much stronger than you at that age so, don't beat yourself up."

Trunks took the towel with an attitude, "Maybe if you weren't always splitting your attention-"

"You'd still be weaker than her even if you turned Super Saiyan; so, on that note, it's obvious who really needs the training," He got to eye level with Trunks and placed a hand on his shoulder as the angsty boy looked up, "One day, you'll be the strongest person on the Planet, I promise, for now though?"

Trunks nearly kicked himself for not jetting off faster than he could speak, "Twenty Kamehameha's before dinner," He turned on a dime as the boy sighed in exasperation.

"Damn it all."

…

"Agh!" Kara took a forced step forwards as she attempted to march through-out the gravity augmented room; the door slid wide open and Gohan stepped in without so much as flinching. The meter on the training grid read, "30Gs, huh?" Gohan noted tapping the digital numbers.

"Don't… brag…" she muttered taking another forced step as each step was easily thousands of pounds of force; her blood was thirty-times harder to pump, her bones were thirty-times more difficult to maneuver, each muscle was thirty-times as stressed with each movement.

"Not bragging; it doesn't take a certain level of strength or power to resist this type of strain, it just takes time," He leaned against the wall and tilted his head back watching as she struggled to move.

"Did… Trunks… Transform?" She grunted in-between each word to refocus her strength on her limbs. He sighed with great exasperation, looking up and reminiscing on the Saiyans of the past, "Not yet, I'm not completely sure he ever will," Gohan thought back to what he truly knew about Super Saiyans and broke it down as best he could, "It takes severe emotional trauma to unlock the transformation, family dying, or loosing something precious to you; Vegeta managed to transform just by focusing on the one constant in his life, his pride. And he took his secrets about the form to his grave as did the only other Super Saiyan I ever knew, my father."

Kara was silent as she listened only nodding at some point before finally adding her two cents, "You… can't… hurt him… like that… there has… to be… another way!" each step she took she felt sweat dripping from her brow; she closed her eyes tight as the sweat stung her eye and once she opened them she noticed him standing before her with the towel in his hand. She was under too much pressure to jump back or shout but, she would have out of pure surprise. He dabbed her forehead with the towel and smiled, "I noticed you could use a hand…"

"Thanks!" She shouted now able to fully reopen her eye, "What would… I do… without you?" He took a few steps to the left and placed a hand on the control console as Kara suddenly became as light as she normally would be and tripped over herself overzealously landing on her face. She held her head for a moment and looked up to find his hand out generously offering support, "What kind of man are you, Son Gohan?" she gripped his hand and pulled herself to her feet with his leverage, she was several inches shorter than he was so the moment she did she looked directly up into his eyes. They stood almost uncomfortably close to one another for several long seconds before the door sliding open behind them snapped them out of their trance, "Gohan!" Bulma ran in with haste, not wasting a moment, "We need you in the lab, now."

…

Bulma led Kara, now outfitted in her white solar-suit, and Gohan into the laboratory where a team of men and women on computers typed away, with schematics of different kinds on each screen.

"We've gone over the prospects of possibly traveling back in time with the energized star-core and Kara's ship, however; that's not all we need," She focused her attention on the main screen directly in front of her displaying a large map of the country, "There's a specific containment unit built by my father's corporate rival from before the war; the star-chamber was never released to the public but, they did build a prototype."

Gohan folded his arms, "Why do you need me? Send an extraction team to-"

"The Androids are in the city," Bulma quickly cut him off by focusing on the maps zoomed in image of West City in ruin with explosions lighting up all around it, "The city with the corporate-lab, I mean, if they destroy the building and the chamber…"

"Nothing will be able to process the star-core and we'll be stuck with a time-line with _them_ in it," Kara rolled her eyes in distaste, "But, do we know the chamber hasn't already been destroyed?"

She looked up with a good point at the unfortunately sorrow group of unsure scientists, "We know the building is standing but, for how much longer is anyone's guess," one scientist put his clipboard down with a long-face.

"You two are the only ones to come in contact with the Androids and live, it has to be you."

Gohan turned to the logistic maps with the Androids location appearing only a few miles away from the extraction point, "God, what I wouldn't do to know Instant Transmission right now," he got closer to the screen and narrowed his eyes, "We can't just fly right in, no matter how fast we are, they'll see us ten miles away." He suddenly noticed a collapsed ally way bridging off from the main road in front of the corporate building, "What's this road here," he pointed directly at it as it was zoomed in further on.

"Looks like a collapsed ally," its large and closely placed walls covered it from view of the outside world, limiting noticeability,  
"We enter through there; that way we don't get seen," Gohan turned around with a serious glare back towards the exit, "We take off in five."

Bulma stomped her foot, "Promise me you'll stay away from them!"

Gohan stopped, considering her suggestion before continuing through the room and out the corridor without a word, "You're his girlfriend, do something!"

Kara scoffed impressively loud and backed away with her hands up as a blush creeped across her cheeks, "That is so not… ugh!" she blew the bangs from her hair and turned to follow after her comrade, "Gohan, just wait up!"

"I told you it takes an emotional toll to be a Super Saiyan; every time I power up to fight them I see the faces of my dead loved ones," He continued walking without looking back at her, "You wouldn't understand what I have to go through being a powerful warrior in a world where being powerful is useless."

Kara looked away with her ocean blue iris' brushing a blonde strand of hair behind her ear, "That doesn't mean you should purposefully go head to head with them either, we have to bring the other Saiyans back, your father, Trunks' father," just thinking about hearing Vegeta's voice again almost made him cringe on one hand and on another it would be useful to have his impeccable wit and genius fighting style back on the battlefield.

"Time travel? Really? We're betting our futures on a theory!" Gohan didn't stop as they approached the hangar deck and automatic doors slid open, "Something I've known since I was little fighting an alien dick measuring contest at age five, I learned something, at the end of the day, the powerful get what they want. The Androids will always be the most powerful pair of fighters in existence but, my Saiyan blood and decades of fighting battle after battle have urged me to challenge them regardless. I'm sorry but I can't sit around and watch them destroy the world!" Gohan stopped and pounded his fist into the metal corridor wall; knowing he could easily topple the entire facility it was obvious he'd held back significantly.

He had his eyes shut tight, remembering the pain he'd endured through his entire life, the fighting would never end and he learned that a long time ago. Suddenly, he felt a warm sensation wrap around his torso and back; he opened his eyes to find a head of silky smooth blonde hair inserted into the crook of his neck. Kara had embraced him tightly and didn't seem like she planned on letting go; he blushed slightly before returning the embrace with one of his own, pulling his fist from the wall and wrapping both arms around her slender-waist.

They stayed hugging for several minutes until Gohan pulled away running his fingers along her arms as he did so until her hands fell into his, "I'm sorry to worry you, I just can't watch them kill so many people knowing I could do something about it, no matter how small the contribution."

Kara met his onyx eyes with her own sapphire iris' seeing the pain in his eyes brought her to an understanding, "Okay, but, only on one condition."

The Half-Saiyan blinked for a moment, "Uh, sure, what is it?"

"Take me with you."

He pondered her remark for a moment before allowing a smile to grow, "Alright, lets see if your training payed off at all."

…

After flying across the sky for nearly thirty-minutes they finally approached West City; Gohan narrowed his eyes at the dim explosions in the distance, he halted his flight and dispersed his aura, "Let's stop here!" he shouted as Kara flew passed him and stopped as well turning toward him with a questioning look.

"What for?"

He turned towards the explosion and prepared to explain, "We don't want to attract their attention till we get that containment unit," he floated towards the ground and landed on a sidewalk that shook with the force of the nearby detonations. Kara followed suit lowering herself gently before dipping behind a half-destroyed building with Gohan mimicking her actions.

"The explosions didn't even stop for a second which means they haven't noticed us," Gohan turned back to the sidewalk and stepped out into view, "Let's run the rest of the way, wouldn't want any attention."

She nodded in agreement stepping next to him on the walk-way, "Lets go," she muttered as they both took off at super-speeds, sprinting thousands of times faster than the fastest human that ever lived. They dashed across the street and through the city always staying neck-to-neck, never once passing one-another, she was honestly surprised he could keep his pace without transforming. As they turned their final corner they came to a perfect and abrupt stop in front of the ally sending a gust of wind across the ground; burnt newspapers flew through the air around them as they settled on the concrete gently.

As they approached a false brick-wall, Gohan immediately used his Kiai shout to quickly obliterate it sending bricks flying around them and revealing a thick steel vault-door hidden beneath the brick.

He turned to Kara, "Use your vision," he said quickly, "What're they doing?"

Kara nodded, "Right," she turned and focused her vision on the distance using her+new-found X-Ray vision to see through obstructions easily and viewing the Androids as they strolled through the streets firing beams from their fingers annihilating buildings at a time for the fun of it, "Looks like they're about ten miles away, they haven't noticed us yet."

Gohan flashed a faint smile before turning back to the door, "Good, so they won't hear this," he tightened his fist and pulled back before quickly slamming it through the metal, tearing through steel like tissue-paper. He pulled the door with a little jolt of force and ripped it off its hinges with his fist alone, he tossed it behind him and as it landed Kara could see that it was over 4-feet-thick.

They stepped through as dry-wall dust fell from the ceiling above due to the nearby explosions; the metallic-décor reminded them of Capsule Corp only, this facility had obviously been abandoned for decades, with moss and mildew growing across the computers. Vines ran up and down the walls they passed until they reached a large room labeled 'prototype projects' on the door missing letters and obviously rusted over; "It should be in here," Gohan swiftly kicked the door in with little effort and peered in as the dust settled.

They took a few apprehensive steps into the dark room, covering their mouths to avoid breathing in dust; soon they were met with several long rows of different types of devices each varying in size and shape, "How do we know which one the containment unit is?" Kara asked as she felt that it was safe to uncover her mouth.

Gohan pulled a device from his Gi without breaking his attention from searching the room, "It should look like this," the device projected a small holographic image of the cylinder unit from the palm of his hand.

Kara took a look before turning back to the room, "It would help if we could see anything in this rat-hole," Gohan nodded and formed a blue sphere of Ki in his other hand projecting an aqua-blue hue onto the entire room and illuminating most of the devices.

"Find it and capsulize it so we can get out of here," Gohan stated firmly as the explosions grew stronger suddenly nearly throwing Kara off balance. She gulped and nodded ignoring the bead of sweat forming above her brow; dashing through the rows and using her photographic memory it only took seconds to locate and shrink it down. "Got it!"

Gohan dispersed his energy and turned towards the door suddenly narrowing his eyes at the distance, "What?" She asked from behind as she tucked the capsule into her sleeve.

"I think they're getting closer; I can't sense them but every time they fire off an attack I can feel a little tickle, its artificial Ki but its still Ki," he looked back to her and nodded towards the door motioning for them to make their super-speed exit. Rushing through the corridors in less than a second, they made it into the ally-way where smoke came billowing from the streets clearly from a nearby explosion. They immediately heard voices erupting from around the corner causing the both to jump and place their backs to the wall.

"This is getting dull; lets go to a different continent already," Eighteen mumbled as she kicked a red tattered hover-car into the air crashing through the degraded windows of a nearby building and collapsing several stories to the ground.

"Now, hold on," Seventeen added, "If we move on we may not run into our special blonde friends again," he smiled a sent a beam from his index finger completely obliterating the building juxtaposed to him without ever taking his eyes off his sister.

"Which is the only reason I've entertained this ghost town for so long, Seventeen, you know how I feel about being bored for too long though," She leaned against a concrete shard pultruding from the ground-level of a wrecked building, she sighed loudly and blew strands of blonde from her view, "This totally blows."

Gohan turned to Kara quickly and placed his hands on her shoulders, "We need to run," he forced himself to say quickly before changing his mind.

"I thought you said-"

Gohan looked back in the direction of the corner separating them from the Android's view, "I was wrong, we can't win today, we need to go, now!" He shouted in a whisper, just barely keeping it from reaching the cybernetic ears of their enemy.

Suddenly, a loud whaling erupted from around the corner causing both Saiyan and Kryptonian heads to turn; a small girl, no older than five or six, came walking out of the rubble covered in ash and dirt. She must've been unconscious and presumed dead during the initial attacks with her parents losing her or their lives; now she was inadvertently walking directly into the conversation between the robotic demons. Her crying caught their attention quickly as they ceased their idle talk as Eighteen narrowed her eyes with the girl aimlessly walking towards them with her hands in her face, "Looks like we missed one…"

Seventeen yawned, "She'll hardly scream; should we just let her go?"

Eighteen chuckled loudly with a bright smile on her face, "No," she kicked herself off the concrete wall causing it to crumble into ash behind her, "I need this, I haven't seen anything I can kill for hours!" She formed a purple orb of energy in her left hand and approached the small child, "Hey, little girl, you lost?" she asked with a sinister under-tone.

Gohan tightened his eyes for a moment, "Gohan?" Kara asked as his anger boiled inside of him; his rage was always his best fighting attribute and to let it loose now could be exactly the edge he needed. The girl continued to cry loudly without fail even as Eighteen approached, Kara used her enhanced vision to see the events through the wall as the Android slowly approached the innocent soul searching for any sort of safety.

"Gohan?"

Bulma's warning echoed in his head as Krillin, Tien, Yamcha, Yajirobe, Chaotzu, and Piccolo's death flashed before his eyes; Eighteen lifted her hand above her head prepared to incinerate the poor child on the spot, "Gohan!"

His eyes snapped open with turquoise iris' and a blonde explosion, "I'M SEEING RED!" His Super Saiyan rage exploded and destroyed the wall they were hiding behind, his fist slammed into the female Android's right cheek with a scream and a crunch sending her through the street, passed Seventeen, and into the front of a building.

"What the what?" Seventeen was at a lost for words when a right hook suddenly clapped the side of his head and launched him through several walls of a totally different building than his sisters. Gohan's Super Saiyan energy exploded as he touched down and flexed his muscles; Eighteen was the first to emerge from the rubble with her trademark stripped long-sleeve torn nearly to shreds, her hair a frizz and scratches across her cheek, although, nothing severe enough to draw blood.

"You?!" She shouted in disgust, "You are so dead!"

Kara used her super-speed to rush in and grab the crying child, holding her close to her chest and away from the evil duo, "It's okay, sweetie, it's alright."

"Get her out of here!"

Kara blinked and stood keeping the child behind her, "What about you?"

"I can hold them off for a bit, just get her to the bunker and leave the rest to me," Gohan never took his glare off Eighteen until the second building exploded with dust and rubble flying across the asphalt road revealing Seventeen stepping out relatively unharmed.

"Don't you dare die on me, Son Gohan," Kara grabbed the girl and held her in her arms, close to her chest as she floated up and slowly accelerated to keep the child safe. Eighteen smiled before lifting a finger and shutting one eye to keep better aim, "If nothing else, I always did enjoy a moving target…"

Before she could fire an attack, her wrist was gripped by Gohan's raging strength, "Did you forget about something?!" She was almost surprised at his strength, it had definitely increased since their last battle only a few weeks prior, it was most certainly an impressive jump to make, however; Seventeen landed his boot on the Super Saiyan's face throwing him through the air and landing back first on the ground with a grunt.

"It's two versus one, amigo, and I'm sure you remember what those odds feel like," Seventeen chuckled as he and his sister walked side by side towards him with an ominously slow strut.

"You know you can't win! You can't kill what I am! Even if you manage to kill this body, someone stronger will surface and take my place!" Gohan eyed them both as Eighteen used her super-speed to appear behind him before he could consider a retreat.

"That was quite the entrance you made," She announced drawing his attention to her, "I hope you enjoyed it because it's going to cost you your life! And you tore my favorite shirt…"

"There is no end to me! No end!" Gohan shouted as his aura exploded in a golden furious blaze around him; Eighteen and Seventeen both grew smiles across their sinister expressions.

"Actually, you just settled up a little problem of ours; killing you will be the perfect time-killer, boredom relief at its finest," Seventeen brushed raven locks from his view getting a better look at the battle field.

"Not one death will go unaccounted for! Not one!" Seventeen charged with anger after hearing Gohan's insolent-toned threats, Eighteen followed his lead as they both attacked from either side.

Gohan formed an orb of energy in the palm of his right hand and slammed it into the ground below his feet tossing up a cloud of dirt and dust covering his escape into the air. He flew directly up, moving into the skyline at eye level with skyscrapers and abandoned towers alike; the two demons followed close behind firing beams simultaneously at him.

"Energy Shield!" a barrier of Super Saiyan Ki formed as a sphere around his body taking the blasts head on but, dealing no damage to the mortal within. Eighteen waited for the nanosecond the shield went down to come in with a right-straight which Gohan perfectly caught in his left palm. This was only a momentary success as Seventeen came from behind and spiked him in the back with both hands cupped together.

The Saiyan collided with an old monorail track collapsing it as he flew through it and into the ground; they landed next to him and attempted to put their foot down on his chest but, he back flipped out of the way, backwards hand-springing to his feet. Quickly he flew through the motions of the signature turtle wave and fired his most fearsome quick Kamehameha as the blue beam made a bee-line for his target.

They stood back to back and fired off twin beams of yellow Ki which, standing at such close proximity, formed a single thicker beam that collided with the Kamehameha. They struggled to gain any footing over one another for a moment or two until the rage inside Gohan overwhelmed him, his aura grew, his Kamehameha grew, and soon the energy overpowered the Androids and sent them skidding back on their heels until they jumped back to avoid its path. They both landed side by side on their backs, Seventeen seemed beat until he smiled and sent a beam of yellow Ki at Gohan whom had jumped into the air to attack.

Gohan forced Ki into his arm and deflected the blast in time only to receive a right-hook to the face that sent him jumping backwards from spot to spot as Seventeen followed quickly behind; Suddenly, Eighteen appeared above Gohan attempting a roundhouse kick but, was avoided and accidently kicked her brother back towards the ground hundreds of feet below them. The clever Saiyan took this opportunity to grab her by the open ankle and drag her at half the speed of light towards a twenty-story building which was still standing, he halted his flight at the last second and flung her overhead by the ankle into the building causing each and every story to explode as she fell through them.

Gohan landed on his feet breathing heavily, each breath burning more energy than the last, each movement straining his every muscle further until soon he wouldn't be able to keep up with himself. This pace wasn't healthy even for a Super Saiyan; the sad truth was, they could do this forever but, he could not. He shook the thoughts from his head as they stood, dusting themselves off with obvious rage in their eyes.

"Haaa!" His aura exploded once more, the clouds above them turned grey, rain began falling from the sky little by little until it was soon enough pouring. The water was cold against the heat of his golden energy, it was soothing at first but, soon it was almost stinging his skin with its temptation of sweet relief.

A clap of thunder signified the beginning of the second act, the battle was nearly through, "This thunderstorm will make the perfect back-drop for your demise," Seventeen stated seriously, more seriously than Gohan had ever seen him before, it was almost truly terrifying.

Suddenly, Seventeen and Eighteen slid into perfect unison; apparently, they only now had begun taking things seriously. They charged into battle as Seventeen attempted a right straight, Gohan dematerialized from sight and appeared landing a heel to his chin as Eighteen landed behind him and punched the Saiyan in the lower-back before spin-kicking him in the face sending him on the defensive. They traded blows, each one more devastating than the last, two against one, Androids versus Super Saiyan; the ground shook with cataclysmic might as Gohan met fists with Seventeen. This only lasted a moment as Eighteen took over and right-hooked him into the ground, they repeated this process of bullying him through out the rest of the battle until Gohan was nearly at the end of his wits.

Blood streamed from his lips and nose; he huffed as he could feel his stamina draining by the second, he eyed them both as Seventeen charged forwards immense speed. Gohan threw his left arm up in defense but, what came next was truly agonizing.

"AGH!" To the ground feel eight-pounds of muscle and appendage as Gohan nearly tripped backwards as splatters of blood hit the concrete beneath his feet. He soon fell to his knees in writhing pain, nothing had ever been so excruciating, it trumped being crippled by Recoom and beaten down by Freeza; he'd never felt such agony before.

"Look, Seventeen, stumpy looks like he's in pain," She smiled as their confident façade returned to the forefront.

He chuckled before answering, "What do ya say we euthanize this puppy, shall we?" they opened their palms and flashed yellow orbs of light in his face as he looked up and suddenly realized he'd been consumed by pain too long. He would throw up a shield but, even that wouldn't guarantee survival at this range; he closed his eyes and prepared for the worst.

Before they could fire their attack though, they heard a brief female grunt before a sharp pain hit Eighteen in the neck; a foot pushed Eighteen into her brother and through the air slamming into a car before two beams of red detonated the gas tank and caused an explosion that covered her entry.

Kara landed and threw Gohan's remaining arm over her shoulder; she had no time to look for the separated appendage as an orb of Ki flew blindly from the smoke destroying a building not too far from her. She took off into the air at hypersonic speeds, so fast that once the smoke had cleared enough for the mechanical monstrosities to see the sky, she was gone.

"I hate her so much!" Eighteen shouted stomping her heel into the concrete, shattering several dozen feet of it.

…

Gohan's eyes fluttered open, he was in the bunker or at least he really hoped he was; the med-bay mattress felt awfully familiar though which was not the ideal way to know he was at least safe. Everything was in pain aside from his left arm, which was no longer attached to his body, "Could really use some Namekian genes right now." He attempted to sit up but, was stopped by a surgery table still set up above his body, he was in worse shape than he first felt and that was saying something.

Bulma approached from the right with a bloody rag and sutures; "I'd tell you not to sit up or you'll pull your stiches but, you'd probably decide to perform the next surgery by yourself without help," her sarcastic tone was as refreshing as ever but, he simply plopped his head back on the pillow.

"At least I know your hands haven't lost their steady touch after all these years," Gohan chuckled before breaking into a short cough which ended with splattered blood on his white sheets. "Where's Kara?"

Bulma motioned to the other side of the mattress, "She refused to leave your side the entire time you were on the table," Gohan turned his head finding her asleep with her head placed gently where his left arm would've been, her blonde hair covering her peaceful sleeping face.

"Bummer, I really liked that arm," he closed his eyes trying to ignore the extreme pain that surged through every nerve in his entire body.

"Be serious, you're down an arm now and Trunks isint anywhere closer to being ready to fight with you two; we need him," Bulma washed the rag in the nearby sink watching as the blood funneled down the drain.

"There's gotta be a way you can fix the whole arm issue, right?"

The genius company tech-giant thought for a moment, "Let's say I could make you an arm from spare-parts and some left-overs from Kara's ship, do you honestly think it would help?"

He looked down at his torso which he could barely see from his position, not answering knowing very well that she was right, she pulled a bottle from the cabinet directly above the sink labeled 'Oxycotton' before tossing it on the bed.

"Do you really think time-travel is possible?"

"We've seen demons, aliens, magical dragons, and evil androids; I don't think anything is impossible anymore; it's just a matter of how much effort I'm willing to put into it," she wiped her hands with a rag and tossed it into the sink before sitting in a chair not too far from his bed, "But I can't keep splitting my time between fixing what they do to you and making the impossible."

"Even if we save my father, and Vegeta, there's no way to know that it'll be enough…"

"I dunno, if you five team up, I'm not sure infinite stamina will be a factor for them," she pulled a red and white box from her coat pocket and placed a cigarette in her mouth before sparking it and taking a long puff.

"You haven't see what I've seen; they're methodical, rhythmical, like nothing I've ever fought before," Gohan sighed and cracked his neck with a motion of his shoulders, "Tell ya what; you make me that arm you were talking about and I'll consider hanging back on the war against those monsters but, only until you finish the machine. Deal?" Gohan gave Bulma a look they'd come to share, one that was an unbreakable bond between life-long friends.

She smiled and pulled the cancer-stick from her perched lips, "Deal, now get some rest, you three have a lot of training to do when you're healing factor kicks in."

There was no telling how long it would take but, the longer it did, the more time they had to prepare; the clock was ticking by the moment, can they really save Son Goku? Or is it all for-not?


	4. Chapter 4

I don't own DB or DC.

 **3 Years Later**

 **Age 770**

Silence could be deafening, and the middle of the desert was about as quiet as a place could get; Kara Zor-El suddenly didn't like the idea of silence as she felt like her super-hearing only worsened the ability to hear heartbeats and bodily fluids floating in her own body. Today was _the_ day, the day she finally completed her training, the day she was finally ready to be a hero for this world. Trunks stood next to her with a determined fire in his eyes, today was his day more than it was hers; today was the day that it would be decided whether he should be allowed to go out into the field regularly. He had grown significantly, he was almost five-foot-eight now and wore a black tank top beneath a purple crop-top jacket, his mothers capsule corporation insignia emblazed on its sleeve. He pulled his sword from its strapped-sheath and held it at eye-level at their opponent standing a few dozen feet in front of them.

The desert was the perfect battle ground for their testing; the lack of civilian populace and standing structure made it ideal for avoiding casualties and demonic androids. Their opponent was the only man capable of accurately testing their abilities, today he wouldn't be their mentor, friend, or anything more; instead he'd be their opponent and he planned on holding nothing back.

"You two ready?" Gohan asked as he gripped the wrist of his new metallic prosthetic; his arm had been composed of the same material as Kara's ship, being capable of withstanding faster than light travel, reentry heat, and collisions with celestial objects like Moons and Planets; it was the perfect substance for a fighter of his caliber. Gohan was smart but, even he'd admit that he didn't fully understand the science behind its workings, however; he knew all he needed to know to use it properly in battle.

Trunks stepped forwards and tightened his jaw, his energy skyrocketed and a bright yellow hue enveloped his entire body as howling winds flew up around them. Kara took a step back and tried to avoid getting dirt in her shorter hair which she'd cut not too many months prior down to shoulder length; Gohan simply watched in awe as his once helpless pupil became almost as strong as his father was on Namek. His lavender locks flew up and sparkled with golden energy brighter than any star, as his aura finally died down it became a thin line of energy flowing around him at a consistent rate like flames billowing over his muscles.

Kara slipped into a fighting stance as her eyes shun crimson red, "I think we're ready!" She was outfitted in her pearl-white solar suit and ready for action.

"Don't think, know!"

Trunks was still quite new to becoming a Super Saiyan and the anger needed to use the form was usually enough to keep him quiet which was a good thing on the battle field, the ground beneath him shook but, Gohan didn't waver. He grabbed a near by pebble and held it in his organic hand feeling it's texture, "Remember to control that power, Trunks!" Gohan's own energy began to rise as sparks of golden Ki began zipping around him, his hair became a furious blonde and his muscles bulged significantly, however; the rock in his hand was completely unscathed. This was an example of proper Ki control; he lifted his arm and tossed the rock into the sky with moderate strength.

The three of them watched or listened for the rock making contact with the ground as their sign to begin the fight. Seconds went by which felt like hours to beings as fast as them but, soon enough they heard the contact of the rock hitting the sand not too far and with that they bolted. Kara and Trunks moved in at massively faster than sound, a sword swung down with the force of a planet but, not strong enough as Gohan used his new arm to catch it perfectly in-between his fingers. He slid his right foot back for support and dodged a haymaker from Kara who came at him in the same second; he took this opportunity to send an orb of golden Ki into her stomach propelling her back, digging her heels into the dirt.

Trunks tugged on his weapon and used Gohan's grip to pull himself in to stomp on his opponent's chest, pushing Gohan on to his back until he flipped back to his feet. Trunks flew forwards swinging and chopping at the air with accuracy that he'd learned from experience but, having the speed advantage, Gohan dipped and turned at every opportunity until he'd dodged all of his attacks. Kara used her super speed to run in and shoulder-tap the Saiyan man in the chest pushing him through a large rock pillar which collapsed on top of him. The smoke and rubble slowly fell as a golden burst of light flew into the air behind it, aiming down and launching a multitude of yellow Ki blasts at the ground. Trunks and Kara nodded to one another and charged upwards with mighty battle roars, Gohan knew the sword was his only real disadvantage aside from being out numbered so, he cleverly fired a beam of Ki from his finger tip and knocked his grip loose sending the sword cascading to the ground, digging its tip into the dirt.

They went toe to toe in hand to hand combat, Kara's reflexes had gotten sharper as had her skill in martial arts; her power though had topped off a while ago. It was like she had a set limit of strength and speed but, she was a brawler at best so there was still a-ways to go before she was ready to take on Androids. Gohan backed-up avoiding crimson beams of heat, simultaneously hitting Trunk's chin with the tip of his toes and summersaulting backwards. Once he landed he fired a beam of blue concussive energy from his metallic-arm sending them stumbling back on their feet. Kara was the first to shake it off, using her super-speed and her ability to levitate at the same time to simulate skating on air, engaging Gohan in hand to hand combat alone. Although she had significantly improved over the years, he was definitely in a league of his own and smiled as she attacked. She jabbed the air next to his head and groaned before hitting his chest with her palm and sending them apart, "You're still too fast for me!"

"You've seen me go up against Seventeen alone, you know that speed is not every-" he took a quick look around and put his guard up, "Where did Trunks go?"

"HIYA!" from above the Super Saiyan swung his blade down hitting the dirt at Gohan's feet, cracking the canyon apart like glass. Trunks abandoned his blade now stuck in the Earth's mighty grip and attacked upwards with a palm full of Ki; Gohan redirected his wrist and aimed a first for his young-companions solar plexus when Kara came in with super-speed and stopped him. She delivered a round house kick to his neck while he was distracted pushing him into the side of a cliff, "Together!"

"Ka…Me…" Gohan cupped both of his arms to the side and formed a blue orb of Ki, "Ha…Me…"

Kara and Trunks stood side by side as the Super Saiyan placed his hands to his forehead and charged his signature Ki attack; Kara charged every bit of solar energy she could from the bleak skies and poured it into her eyes with all of her might.

"Ha!"

"Masenko!"

"AGH!"

Trunks and Kara's beam individual beams focused and melted into one energy colliding with Gohan's Kamehameha Wave with the force of multiple exploding planets. The Saiyan elder had the advantage at first, however; soon enough the Saiyan/Kryptonian duo began to charge up their attacks and overwhelm their opponent, Gohan likely could have gone further but decided this was enough. He released his wave and stepped back as he allowed their beams to push through and pass him carving through the massive mountain-side behind him. After the thousands of massive boulders and rocks collapsed, Gohan exhaled as his Super Saiyan form dissipated and the golden fury evaporated above him.

Kara put her hands on her knees for a moment as sweat dripped down her temple, "How did we… do?" she muttered as she wiped her brow.

Trunks quickly sheathed his blade in his strapped holster as Gohan approached the both of them; he placed hands on either of their shoulders and gave a warm smile, "We'd better get back to the base so we can celebrate!"

They lit up like Christmas trees as soon as he mentioned celebrating, "You mean we passed?"

Gohan floated up a few feet inviting them to follow, "With flying colors, you two are ready to fight androids!" They both took off after their now former master whilst shouting in celebration for passing their final test as heroes.

…

Upon arrival they were met with the main analyst crew and, of course, Bulma Briefs standing in the command center with decorations, punch, small finger-foods, and smiling faces all around. The blue-haired scientist was ever so slightly shorter with a bun in her long grown out hair, "Congratulations, you two," She announced as she approached and wrapped Trunks in a warm embrace, "My little boy, all grown up and ready to fight androids. The years pass so quickly!"

Kara grabbed a mason jar filled with punch and sipped before adding her two cents, "I'm surprised you let him fight at all to begin with."

"Well, we have to take what we can get; besides, I trust Gohan with my life," she looked over and gave the Saiyan man a half-hug from the waist, "And if he says you're ready, then you're ready."

Gohan cleared his throat and raised his jar of punch, "I think it's time," he looked over to Trunks and Kara who were pushed to stand side-by-side, "It took a lot of consideration but, I officially christen you two 'Z-Fighters.' It took nearly 20 years but, we're back on the map."

Trunks punched the air with enthusiasm having waited a long time for this moment, "Look out, Androids!" a loud cheering erupted around them from the entire crew shouting behind them with support and love. It was then that Bulma stepped in with a chuckle.

"Alright, the last thing we need is a sneak attack while we're all celebrating; let's get back to work keeping this facility as the safest on Earth!" She motioned to Gohan and Kara after dismissing her team of analysts back to their stations, "You two," she barked, "Follow me."

…

Ten minutes later they approached the garage that housed their armory of weapons and experimental defensive technology; Bulma closed the shutter behind them and turned on the lights to the facility. "For the past year, Gohan and I have discussed going back to war against the Androids. Not just survival but, all-out war."

"I thought we were holding off on that until we change history?"

Bulma turned leaning against her work bench, "That was before Trunks became a Super Saiyan; now we out number them three-to-one!"

Kara took a quick glance back at her friend before Bulma continued, "I figured I couldn't stop you forever anyways so, I felt much more comfortable giving you the best chance you can get at taking on Seventeen and Eighteen," The scientist tapped a few commands into the central hub before programming and removing a small remote from the console, "So, for about a year now, I've been putting together… this…"

With the press of a button, a silver containment pod lowered itself to the ground and opened up with pressurized steam hissing out from every opening. Within the pod was a suit of armor, not just any armor but, a highly advanced suit created from the remnants of Kara's ship and the lining of the cloth within; it had a red-blue color scheme with golden trim across it leading to a symbol in the center being a single 'S'.

"I used the last bits of your ship to create two things; Gohan's arm and this suit, of course, not everything is alien; I had to improvise on a lot of it. The trim is a steel-gold alloy a-and the spandex-looking substance is a kevlar-leather composite," She stuttered and pulled up blueprints quickly working through them with her finger, "It's lined with a nano-fabric shielding so that you can take heavy explosions without damage and it's weaved with a solar-absorption thread so you can take in as much yellow sun-light as possible, even while fighting."

Kara approached it as Bulma put her hands together hoping she'd like it, especially after understanding that their relationship had gotten significantly kinder over the years, "This symbol," she noted over lapping the 'S' with her index-finger, "Where did you find it?"

Bulma raised a brow in confusion, "Well, it was all over the coding we decrypted, and it was even emblazoned on the blanket we found inside the ship; why, mean something to you?"

Kara gave a warm smile as she turned around, "It's the symbol for the House of El; my family crest, it represented hope on my planet for generations."

"Well, it'll do the same here," Gohan added as he looked up at the armor on display putting an organic hand on her shoulder.

"And you knew about this?" She turned with a giggle and pushed him back a foot or two.

Gohan put his hands up in defense, "I was sworn to secrecy! Bulma wasn't sure about fighting them again anyways!"

Kara turned quickly putting a hand back on the chest-plate, "I suppose I could forgive you just this one time…" she trailed off staring at the gleaming trim.

The suit was perfect for her, she practically giggled with excitement "You certainly needed an upgrade from that old solar suit you've been wearing and I was happy enough to impr-"

Bulma was cut off as Kara moved in for a warm hug, holding her just tight enough to show the appreciation she had for the suit without breaking her in half, "Thank you," she stated simply.

Bulma smiled a bit and rolled her eyes, "Yea, well, consider it a graduation gift; now," she started pulling away from the embrace and tapping a button on the remote, "Both of you need to get some rest, you have a big day tomorrow."

"So, the diagnostics are done?" Gohan asked as he watched the suit being drawn back into its containment unit.

The turquoise haired beauty sighed, "As ready as it'll get; we've done tests with organic material and we're sure it'll work but, transporting three people?" She chuckled coyly as she led them out of the facility, "It'll be a bumpy ride."

"Wow, I can't believe I'm going to be an astronaut and a time-traveler by this time tomorrow…"

"I flew into space with my friends when I was six," he put a finger to his chin.

"It's not a contest!"

Bulma stopped and looked up, "You were six? Wow, you really were… that wasn't safe _at all_ , what were we thinking?"

"Beats me," Gohan responded with a shrug, "Hey, Kara," as they exited the garage and Bulma tended to the shutter doors, the Saiyan grabbed her wrist and tugged her gently into the air, "I want to share something with you!"

…

They landed on the roof of the central-control hub on the other side of the base, quickly making their way through the entrance hatch and into the long corridor that led to their personal quarters, "This way," he chuckled as he pulled her through the hall into his room.

"What are we doing here?" she questioned as the metallic-door slid shut behind her, a dim light lit up the room as she caught Gohan rummaging through an old brown trunk in the corner.

"Ah-hah!" He stood up right suddenly with a square bottle of brown liquid in it, "I found this while raiding for groceries once… it was the only one still intact," he popped the lid off as Kara raised her brow.

"This is that liquor stuff that Bulma keeps complaining about not having, right?"

Gohan chuckled using his prosthetic to rub the back of his neck, "Well, she used to have a lot but, she's ten months sober; I'm not gonna be the reason she falls of the wagon."

He took a quick look at it before taking a long swig straight from the glass bottle, tipping it up for the momentum; he took a break and handed it to her, "Have some," he smiled and shook the contents as she grabbed it, "It's just to celebrate."

She hesitantly grabbed it and looked it over, "If you say so," she took two long gulps and gave a loud satisfied exhale, "It tingles my throat…"

"It's supposed to," he grabbed it from her and took another gulp before recapping it and placing it on the table, "So, tomorrow's going to be one hell of a day, huh?"

"You're going to see your father again… so will Trunks!"

Gohan took a glance down at his boots and sat on the edge of his mattress, "Yea, not too sure how I feel about that."

"You don't want to see him, I thought-"

Gohan shook his head, "No, of course I want to see him but, he wasn't exactly always there for me and I'd be seeing a lot of dead friends too."

"Mixed emotions, I can understand that," she sat down next to him and brushed her shoulder-length hair behind her ear, "On the upside, you get to see your dad kill that Freeza guy a second time!"

Gohan chuckled, "Yea, it was pretty brutal the first time, I just hope interfering doesn't change anything."

"What do you mean?"

They were interrupted suddenly when a loud boom went off in the distance, like something was approaching at high speeds, "What the hell was that?"

Trunks dashed into their doorway, rushing in the moment he could, "Guys, we have a serious problem, code-white level problem!"

They both opened their eyes as wide as was possible, "Where's Bulma?"

"I can't find her!"

Taking not a single second longer to react, all three of them dematerialized in a rush of speed, making their way through the compound and into the central command. It was chaos as bright crimson lights flashed from the ceiling and a blaring alarm drowned out the mayhem of the scattering soldiers.

"Where are they?" Gohan announced with the shout of a leader; he approached the massive holographic map in the center of the room as a technician barked his trained response.

"Only seventy-five miles southeast and gaining fast, ETA less than two minutes!"

Kara nearly choked on her words, "T-That's… That's not enough time…"

He grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes, "Focus! We need to stall them while this base evacuates, now!"

Trunks gained a determined look, "I'll go with you!"

"NO!" Gohan shouted in anger, "I mean, I need you to find and safe-guard your mother, if she dies the last three years were for nothing."

Trunks stood, almost shaking with the nervous anxiety sending electricity up his spine, "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GO!" He quickly charged a bright clear aura and made his way to the garage where he knew she would be.

"ETA?"

The technician was shaking as he looked at the screen, turning slowly toward his superior, "They… They're here…"

They all almost lost their balance as the entire facility shook, the mountain was under attack from above and the shields wouldn't last another minute. Gohan grabbed the technician as fast as he could, "You're going to listen to everything I say; you make sure every single person gets out of this base, you don't leave until they do, not until your dying breath, is that understood?"

"Yes sir! What will you be doing?"

"The hard part."

…

Eighteen gave a long sigh, "No, look! It's still standing."

As the smoke cleared, they could finally see that the mountain base only had a small chunk taken out of it, the rest was protected by a fizzling barrier; the camouflaged dome glitched into full view as the generators hiding it shut down.

"Fine, I'll hit it again," Seventeen charged up a yellow Ki-orb in his right hand and aimed down, "It took years to find this place, I want to enjoy this."

"So long as you leave some for me…"

He narrowed his eyes with sinister intent as the energy between his fingers sparked with electricity, growing in power, enough to wipe not just this base but the entire mountain range off the face of the Earth. Without hesitation, he propelled the orb down toward the base at the speed of light, waiting for the fireworks display to give him the thrill he lived for.

However, it would never come, as something faster than he'd seen in a long time moved in between his attack and the base, swatting it out of the sky like a bug.

"How about you try that one more time, on me," Seventeen turned behind him, facing a tall, muscular, orange suited martial artist with hair matching his own in color.

Eighteen caught sight of the person who deflected his blast, just as the explosion ignited in the background; detonating harmlessly a dozen miles away. The dome of bright energy lit up the night sky for them, getting a good look at their opponents each. The blonde-devil focused her mechanical eyes on Kara

"Well, lookey here, Eighteen; it's our two best friends in the whole-wide-world!" The maniacal raven-haired cyborg put his hands nonchalantly on his hips, "Ya know, when we found this base, I wasn't completely sure what we stumbled on to but, this!" He opened his arms as-if welcoming them into his embrace, "This was a pleasant surprise."

"Why don't we take this elsewhere? We can fight on an island not too far from here," Gohan jabbed his thumb behind him in the directions of an island-chain.

Eighteen giggled almost innocently, "You want us to move? Yea, not even if you paid me."

"Sorry, stumpy, you heard the gal," Seventeen folded his arms across his chest, "I like this spot…" he formed another energy attack, easily raising the intensity to a thousand times the force his last attack held, "Right underneath the last remaining military base left on this stupid dust-ball!" He fired the attack off toward Kara who would be forced to either let the people below die or take the attack head-on.

Without any other choice, she threw herself in front of the blast, gripping the Ki energy with her fingers and using her flight to keep the blast at bay.

"There, that should hold her, at least long enough to do what needs to be done," Seventeen tightened his fist at his side as both him and his sister turned to face the lone Saiyan warrior.

Gohan gripped his left shoulder and tore his long blue sleeve off revealing his alien-replacement, "I once told you both that there was no end to what I am, you can kill me if you want but, you'll never kill what I am."

"We remember, you sound like a broken record."

"Actually," Gohan molded together his Ki, charging a bright white-clear aura around his floating body; the scanner on his arm monitored his energy limits and kept him from going over-board like he did the last time he fought them, "I was going to say to forget that because I'm going to kill _you_ instead!"

"Big talk coming from a dead-man!" Eighteen vanished from her brother's side, ready to kick her opponent's head off his shoulders, she aimed her foot for his neck ready to shake the planet with their melee. Instead of instantly killing or maiming her target, her roundhouse was met with a defensive forearm blocking the attack with ease, "What?!"

"Sorry, I couldn't hear you over all of that gasping for air," Gohan replied with an enraged smirk.

"What the hell did you just-"

Eighteen was cut off when his fist plunged into her chest, knocking the air from her artificial lungs, before following up with an uppercut to the chin sending her flying back toward her brother. Watching her pass him with a grunt, Seventeen turned back to Gohan, "He didn't go blonde this time, she wasn't expecting that, what happened to him?"

Gohan floated in mid-air, staring down the mechanical beasts as Eighteen stopped her momentum and Kara was still struggling against Seventeen's attack, _"I want to attack them but, they aren't going to underestimate me a second time and I need to make sure I give them enough time to evacuate down there."_

He made his decision and charged an aura, rocketing towards Kara to help her deflect the energy orb but, he didn't make it before both Android's intercepted him, right crossing him in the cheek. Floating back slowly, Gohan rubbed the blood from his lip as they floated down covering his view of Kara, "Sorry, amigo, you've used your last life-line and I'm afraid you don't get another."

Eighteen groaned and brushed her hair out of her eyes with a devilish smile, "This is it for you, we were using less than half our full strength before, this time you won't get away."

"What she's trying to say is we learned from our mistakes, we won't be holding back anymore."

Gohan took a deep breath and exhaled, "Fine," without another word he made sure their eyes would be glued on him by lighting up the sky with a golden fury, "HA!" his Kiai shout clapped like thunder through the clouds as his hair became as bright as the son.

Seventeen was the first to engage in combat, like usual, so it was predictable enough to know where he was going; Gohan used his enhanced senses to block the android's incoming punch, aiming for an uppercut but, missing when his foe dematerialized faster than he could process. From behind Seventeen's disappearing form, Eighteen's foot collided with the Saiyan's chin sending him down towards the water.

Kara could barely see the battle with the immense energy she was holding back but, she could still feel the shockwaves in her teeth, such raw physical strength could be felt for hundred of miles. She needed to help but, if she faltered for even a second, the entire cliff-side base would be toppled into the sea; the energy tore apart the sleeves to her solar-suit all the way up to her shoulders.

"HA!" Suddenly, another golden energy exploded hitting Seventeen's blast from the side and deflecting it into the sky, exploding harmlessly and once again lighting up the battlefield where they could see three figures duking it out in high altitude.

"Kara!" Trunks shouted floating down up to eye level with her in his Super Saiyan state, "Everyone is almost evacuated!"

The Kryptonian glanced down but, only for a second, "C'mon, we have to help Gohan!"

"Wait!" before she could take off he grabbed her wrist, "My Mom wanted me to give you this," it was capsule but, there could only be one thing Bulma would need to give her in a time like this, "She said just open the capsule and put the hope on your heart, she said you'd know that that meant."

She gave him a dutiful nod as he rocketed upwards toward the fight, prepared to fight to the bitter end for his world; Kara pressed down on the capsule allowing an explosion of smoke to encompass her hands. Once cleared, a metallic red and gold trimmed 'S' shield was sitting in her hands, "Alright, Bulma, let's see what this can do."

She slapped it on her chest as the armor opened up using nanotech to spread across her body like a liquid-metal; a blue, red, and gold shaded armor with metallic plating and spandex covered her from head to toe. Golden bracelets to match the trim formed over her wrists with blue plating holstering her chin and wrapping over her forehead like a tiara. She looked herself up and down as a crimson cape flowed in the air behind her with the House of El symbol emblazoned in the center, "This… is going to feel really good."

Trunks swung his sword expertly, with insane accuracy, each swipe just barely missing his female target; she kept a smile the entire time, easily maneuvering around his glowing blade, "Stand still you bitch!"

She stopped at the insult allowing his blade to hit her right in between the eyes but, she just kept staring at him with anger from what he said, "You'll eat those words, punk," grabbing the blade she snapped it in two with just her fingers, discarding the tip into the ocean below.

Trunks gasped at his broken blade, still holding it ready to fight but, shocked that anything could over power him like this; is this what the androids can really do? He had no time to answer as just before Eighteen could swing down and cleave him apart with a chop, she was hit with a thick crimson beam of heat. Sending her back up into the clouds, "You okay?"

"Yea, I'm fine I can handle this, just go help Gohan!"

The clouds parted and Eighteen flew down right crossing Trunks in the face and backhanding Kara away from them, "You die first short stack, then I'll work my way to that bimbo!" She opened a single palm and fired off a volley of energy blasts, each one aimed for either Trunks or the base. He may pale in comparison to the androids but, he was no push over, he was still a Super Saiyan capable of such speed he quickly deflected each of the beams without fail. The last beam was about to tag him by surprise but, he swiftly turned and cleaved it apart with his broken broad-sword.

Seeing how well he did, Kara looked up toward Gohan who was being man handled by the other demonic machine; she took his advice and went to help her love instead, knowing they wouldn't stray too far to help if he gets overwhelmed.

Seventeen was absolutely dominating the battle, each blow was calculated and countered perfectly, there was nothing the Saiyan could do to gain the upper hand. Kara made sure to change this as she flew in and aimed a left fist for the android's chest but, still reacting perfectly and blocking with a forearm. He quickly gripped her wrist and pulled her in for a rib-cracking knee strike and an elbow simultaneously hitting the back of her neck. Letting her go she floated back in pain as spit was forcing its way up her throat, gagging her as she held her stomach.

"Get away from her!" Gohan's rage was still his best weapon, learning to utilize it perfectly in the last few years, he actually managed to land a shin to Seventeen's side, knocking him back a bit. He pushed through, landing an upper cut followed by a rapid-fire-jabs to the abdomen; he finished off the combination with an energy blast to the chest, sending him through the clouds and into the ocean.

The fighting ceased as a massive explosion went off underwater, like a nuclear bomb a dome of displaced water popped like a thousand-foot bubble. Seventeen took a breath as he looked around, the crater was so large that the ocean kept out due to the curvature of the hole. Giving them a nice large ring to fight in, this coupled with Gohan's outburst gave Seventeen an amazing idea, depending on who you ask.

Trunks was surprised by a left hook that caught him in the side of the face, sending him down towards crater but, before he hit the ground, Seventeen intercepted his approach and kicked him into the side of the hole, collapsing metric-tons of rock on top of him.

"Trunks!" Gohan shouted at the top of his lungs, rocketing down towards Seventeen with Kara following behind him; this didn't work as he'd hoped since Eighteen right-kicked Kara into the pit leaving Gohan to face her brother alone.

Seventeen dodged Gohan's predictable downward advance by jumping back and allowing him to hit the ground instead cracking the crater apart with a single punch. He pulled as hard as he could but, his organic arm was stuck embedded into the Earth, keeping him from moving.

"Oops, didn't mean to do that, did you?" The android approached ominously as Gohan's rage was still unrelenting.

He pumped all his Ki into his prosthetic which went from glowing blue to shinning bright yellow as he opened his free palm in Seventeen's face, "Stay away from us!" a massive yellow energy blast engulfed the android completely, only not destroying the planet below them by curving off and up into the sky, dissipating into the vacuum of space.

The smoke cleared and Seventeen was unharmed, his arms were crossed over one another and his sleeves were burnt off but, he was fine none-the-less, "See, that's what I'm talking about, you got an anger-management problem, pal."

He wasted no time gently kicking Gohan in the stomach, hard enough to rip his arm out from the ground but, not hard enough to kill him, yet, "What are you on about?" Eighteen questioned as she landed next to her twin and the beaten Z-Fighters.

"I was thinking, we've been looking for a good fight, right?"

"So?"

Seventeen turned over his shoulder looking at Gohan, "Stumpy always gets really strong when he's angry, right?"

"Are you suggesting we lock him up and use him like a fighting slave?" Eighteen smiled as she approached the coughing alien-human hybrid, "I mean, not just a _fighting_ slave…" Rolling him over with her foot she put her boot down on his chest, cracking a rib with just a bit of pressure.

"AGH!"

The boulders that pinned Trunks down exploded with golden light, vaporizing the entire mass of rubble as he shouted, "GOHAN!" he raised his broken blade above his and tightened his grip on the hilt. Dashing over at many times the speed of light, it still wasn't even close to fast enough for either of them to be concerned; Eighteen shrugged as the teen-fighter approached, getting into position too fast for Trunks to see.

With a single motion, the blonde android allowed his blade to hit her in the shoulder, doing no damage and allowing her to form an energy attack in the palm of her hand. Suddenly, it was like the air was thin and Gohan could hardly breath, a ringing in his ears sharpened every noise around him. He watched as a thick beam of gold went straight through Trunk's chest, only an inch or two from his heart. His body hitting the ground was like the loudest noise he'd ever heard, thundering louder than Planet Namek five minutes from destruction. He watched as Trunks choked on his own blood, "S-Someone h-help me-e," his head fell to the side splattering crimson across the dirt.

"I told him he'd eat those words," Eighteen swung her hair back and turned back toward Seventeen and Kara, the latter of whom couldn't move, she was frozen in fear, just like when she first landed. Just like her first mission, she was just sitting there, trapped by only a few rocks she knew she could move.

"So, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," Seventeen turned around to face the only real threat left only, he wasn't on the ground anymore, he didn't even look like he was in pain. He was just standing, facing the body of his dead comrade, "Hey! Don't ignore me!"

"What gives, I thought he was down," Eighteen mentioned.

"Yea, thanks for the observation, let's just put him down before he gets all uppity again," they gave each other understanding nods before slipping into casual fighting stances; they dashed forwards across the dirt, leaving a trail of dust behind them, each aiming a different attack for Gohan who still didn't move.

It took only one glare, one quick blue-eyed glare, for both androids to be so terrified to their core that they split up on approach to Gohan and went around him instead.

"W-What the hell was that?" Seventeen grabbed his chest feeling his heartbeat, one of the only organic things left in his body; it was like his instincts were telling him to run as far away as he could get.

Gohan held Trunks by the neck, trying to get a response but, he felt his pulse already and knew he was gone, another person he couldn't save. He could feel the rage boiling beneath the surface, he slowly put Trunks down and closed his eyes with his fingers; nothing had ever felt so painful before. Trunks was like his son in a way, he trained him, practically raised him for some years; seeing his body sprawled out on the ground flipped a switch in Gohan's psyche.

Blue electricity surged around his body, appearing every few seconds like something big was coming, his golden hair flickered as if it were going to get even brighter, somehow. His aura slowly encompassed him, forming a powerful dome around his body, "AGHHH!" the pain he felt, the agony of loosing yet another loved one sparked something new, something he'd never seen or felt before.

His muscles contracted becoming denser, his eyes went white for a moment before returning even brighter than before, his hair was a bit longer but, still stood up-right all the same, and the flowing electricity around his body was almost god-like. The light emanating from his body was so bright, even Kara was forced to cover her eyes.

"He's just one guy!" Eighteen shouted over the roaring winds of the Saiyan's aura, even with his back to them, even with no scanners capable of sensing Ki, they could still _feel_ his power in the air.

After the dust settled and the smoke cleared, Gohan stood passively in this new form; an Ascended Super Saiyan, a level beyond what he thought was his limit, he took a quick look at the scanner in his arm but, the screen was cracked and the meter wouldn't work at all. Turning to face them, the androids took a step back, staying on guard, "Still think making him angry was a good idea?"

"Don't blame me, no one we faced has ever done anything like this before!"

Gohan interrupted them by vanishing into thin air, even their cybernetic implants couldn't track his movements now, "Where did he go? Where the hell did he go!?" Eighteen shouted in frustration.

"Behind you," Gohan's voice surprised the twins as they turned on their heels finding him only a few feet away, in between either one of them.

"Bastard!" Seventeen and Eighteen attacked together, from the right she aimed a side-kick right for his head and on the left he tried his best to land a left-straight to his abdomen.

Mimicking his father on Namek, Gohan used one forearm to block Eighteen and raised his knee just high enough to stop Seventeen; dropping to his hands and knees, he spun swiftly sweeping them both off their feet, landing on their backs. Before they could recover, he hugged his chest and collected Ki into a single point, until with a single shout he released it outward exploding with enough force to knock them both tumbling back into ground.

Seventeen snapped his eyes open, shooting to an up right position in the dirt, he quickly scanned the area and found Gohan on the other side of the crater helping Kara out of her daze, "W-What happened to you?"

"Let's figure it out later…" They both turned as Seventeen had fired off a blast too fast for Kara to dodge, instead, Gohan swatted it away like a fly with a single hand.

"That's… not okay…" he stuttered.

Gohan vanished and appeared again next to Trunks, picking up his body into his arms, "You'll pay in blood for what you did here today, I swear it!" Kara shouted with tears forming in her eyes but, only stopped when a hand was put gently on her shoulders.

"What?"

"We're leaving," Gohan stated firmly, without room for rebuttal.

Seventeen and Eighteen were just as angry as Gohan now only it did them no benefit, it made them sloppy instead; Seventeen flew in with a roundhouse kick aimed for Gohan's head but, missed as he ducked under it, a right cross was avoided by dipping to the left followed by side stepping a blast that hit the wall behind them instead of the intended target. He grabbed the android's wrist and twisted it with one hand while still holding Trunks in the other, "I said we're leaving."

Eighteen wasn't going to let them leave, at least not without paying for their humiliation first, "Ha!" a purple beam lashed out not at Gohan but, Kara instead.

The Saiyan quickly tore Seventeen's hand from its socket, tossing it aside, "AGH!" he stumbled back, tripping over himself as he looked at his severed mechanical limb. He did this with enough time to vanish and intercept her blast, deflecting it back at Eighteen whom only barely took the force of.

They floated up slowly, Kara still more scared and shocked than anything else, she'd never seen this type of power in anyone before. Eighteen recovered quickly enough but, let them escape into the sky considering her brother was still seething with anger holding his damaged wrist. She watched as they flew away as she knelt down next to him, this could not stand, they would have to step their game up if they were going to continue this rivalry they'd started.

…

Nearly a hundred miles away, Kara had to blurt out the question she couldn't stop herself from asking, "Why did we stop? Why didn't we kill them?"

"Because I can't…" Gohan stated simply, she couldn't see it yet, the fading aura, his tightened jaw, he was definitely having a hard time controlling this new power.

"Of course you can!" she shouted, stopping in midair, "Did you see what you did out there?"

He stopped but, didn't face her, "No… I mean… I… can't…" the entire transformation fell apart, his aura dispersed, and his hair returned to normal as he collapsed ten thousand feet above ground. It only took a second or two for Kara to catch them both as she slugged Gohan over her shoulder and held Trunks in her arms.

"Damn it!" She shouted, "Every single time!" dashing off towards the ground, she needed to land and find the others, warn them that the androids were still down near the base. Before she could though, she heard a static in her ear.

" _Hello!?"_

"B-Bulma?" Kara stuttered, "You guys are safe, right?!"

" _Most of us are fine, some were struck by falling debris; the better question is how are you guys? Did you make it out alive?"_

She held her head down, not saying a word, tears streaming down her cheeks, landing on Trunks' jacket, "Most of us…"

…

Gohan gasped for breath, sitting up in a white hospital room, this time he hadn't needed surgery but, he could feel the broken bones still healing. "Trunks…" he let his head hang, all of the memories of what happened before he passed out, rushing in like a broken dam flooding his mind with guilt.

The door to the med-bay opened up, "Here we are again…" the woman who stepped through was still wiping her stinging red eyes, "Us two alone again, huh?"

Bulma sat down on the bed next to him, turned away from him, neither said a word but, then again neither had to, "I'm so sorry…" Gohan muttered, "I tried… I tried so hard," he his grip tightened on the sheets as droplets of salty water stained them. He loosened his hand when he felt Bulma place her palm over his own causing him to look up almost shocked.

"I know…" she didn't look at him, she kept her gaze forwards, staring off into nothing, "We all did."

They cried together for the first time in a long time, just holding each other in lament for their loved ones, neither spoke after this, the silence said plenty.

…

"I'm going to kill him!" Seventeen shouted as he kicked open a massive steel door with one foot, "The nerve he has to rip _my_ hand off!"

Eighteen folded her arms as she followed him in, he still held his arm with his one remaining hand, "There has to be something in this stupid old lab that the old man was going to use to fix us!"

She sighed as he kicked over filing cabinets and scattered blue-prints all over the damp cave ground, "Dr. Gero was a maniac, what makes you think he has spare hands lying around for you?"

" _Because_ he was a maniac," Seventeen looked down at his missing hand, wired and tubing sticking from his torn ligaments, "We can't lose to that guy, we can't lose to anyone."

She sat down on an old desk, crossing her legs and propping her chin up with her palm, "Now you're starting to sound like him."

Seventeen ignored her comment as lifted his foot from a large sheet he'd tossed on the ground, "hello," he said nonchalantly grabbing the paper, holding it out as best he could to read with one hand. He tossed the paper aside and moved towards the main computer, feeling up the wall next to it, "Like I said," once he'd found the opening he pressed down and the rocky wall slid aside revealing an entire labyrinth of weapons and pods, "He's a maniac."

As they took a step through the corridors, they found them sevles on what was obviously his holding chambers for failed android's; severed mechanical heads, uninstalled weapons, scattered cybernetic body parts, and six vertical pods with one single pod flat on the ground in the center.

Seventeen immediately made his way to the different limbs and arms, "I could definitely make a new hand with this stuff! And look at some of these weapons… How come I don't have laser eyes, huh Eighteen?"

"Look at this…" She motioned to all of the pods, each one holding a different skeletal corpse, likely teens being prepped for experiments. Meant to be kept alive for months, not decades, each one was obviously dead and gone but, not the one in the middle. Eighteen put a hand on the dusty pod, wiping it clean to see a single designation, "I don't remember any successful projects prior to #17."

Seventeen exhaled still holding a severed hand in his free one, "So… then why does this pod read android Sixteen?"

…

Sorry for the wait. I'll try to pick up the pace but, no promises are being made.


	5. Chapter 5

I don't own DB or DC

 **Chapter 5**

"Should we boot him up?"

Seventeen and Eighteen stared down at their new found older sibling, "Well he's already alive and functioning, just in stasis," he turned back towards the work bench and left his sister staring, "Let's do some digging around here, maybe we can find something on big bro."

Eighteen took her stare from the pod and placed it on her twin, "Why bother? He's just like us, he needs to be freed from Gero's torment and, who knows, maybe he'll be down to use his new powers to help us beat the blonde brigade, boom!" She rounded the corner and stepped out into the initial entry room where Seventeen approached the computer.

"Several things wrong with that plan, for starters, the readings I'm getting off that pod put the new guy at weaker levels then me," he leaned against the dashboard and waved his damaged wrist around, "And if he was stronger than me, which he isn't, whose to say he wouldn't want to start running the show?"

"Fair points…" She turned her gaze back down the hall toward the pod, "I can't stand it, Lapis; seeing another person locked away by that psycho…"

He slammed his palm down on the computer, activating it, "I told you never to call me that again! He's in stasis, when he wakes up it'll be like he blinked, we aren't waking him up until we know we can manage him."

As the screen lit up in the background, the siblings were too busy arguing to notice, "It's your name jackass, no one is around, you don't have to pretend to be a heartless android."

"We _are_ heartless androids, face it, we're straight up evil," she scoffed at his pointing out reality, turning away, "You just murdered a teenager right in front of his brother or something, we wiped out humanity!"

"So what? They deserved it, this guy is just like us, tormented by a human way out of his depth!"

They both turned towards the corridor but neither took a stance, "He stays podded until we figure this out."

"He goes free, now," she put her hand up igniting a purple flame, turning into a pulsating orb of energy.

Seventeen didn't hesitate to put his own hand up, summoning an identical energy in yellow, "Are we really doing this right now?!"

"Yes! I'm letting him out!" She shouted as her energy grew a bit stronger, "We may be even normally but, you're shorthanded…" she nodded to his jutting tubes and wires coming from his arm.

They both turned as a loud hum caught their full attention, _"Beginning update: one of three-hundred-twenty-four."_

Seventeen raised a brow, "Was… Was Gero about to turn this guy on before we eighty-sixed him?"

"Looks like it," With all grievances seemingly tossed out, they stood side by side and looked over the screen as it processed data, "Everything's here; log entries, schematics, blue prints, power levels…"

"Woah!" They both did a double take on his data, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

…

 **Three Days Later**

It was one of the only peaceful moments Bulma could remember in the last twenty-years, the night air brisk enough for a jacket but, just warm enough to be outdoors and the full moon gave them enough light to see clearly the words engraved into the tombstone.

' _Here lies Trunks Briefs; Beloved Warrior, Friend, and Son.'_

Kara folded her arms across her chest, "This isn't right, he should be here," she turned her head over toward the kneeling woman, "He should be with us."

Bulma allowed a single tear to stream down her cheek, caressing the stone tablet, "Everyone mourns in their own way, Kara, he'll come around."

"I just don't understand how he could be so emotionless at a time like this," She stifled, fighting back the urge to shed tears herself, using her white solar-suit to wipe her face.

"Gohan was once the most compassionate and loving boy the world had ever seen," remising on the days of old with her eyes closed, she stood and faced the moon refusing to open them just yet, "But, when the world changes sometimes you're forced to change with it."

The late-night dew made the grass moist but, the hill they were on over looking a massive lake was worth the effort of simply drying their boots, "Has everyone gotten the satellites set up?"

"We should be invisible again by sun-rise, if that's what you mean…"

"No, what Gohan did to Seventeen, what you described; we'll have more than three days of peace that much I'm sure of," she turned around trying her best to put the thought of her late son behind her, "I need my equipment set up to check something, related to your mission tomorrow."

"It's a time machine, Bulma, the beauty is you have all the time in the world to go back and change things!"

They walked off back towards the camp which was set up in an abandoned Capsule Corp safe house; looking out over the hill they spotted the mouth of the cave which led to their new base, "If I'm right, and I hope I'm not, the mission may not even be worth making."

"What?! Explain!"

"Have you studied up on your quantum theory?"

"Ugh," she growled and turned away, glaring out into the distance with her enhanced vision, "Where's Gohan? He needs to know about this."

Bulma sighed exasperated with the Saiyan species entirely, "Try somewhere deserted and exploding."

…

Meanwhile, Gohan stood atop a singular rock pillar surrounded by miles and miles of sand and stone; he was in his base form but, he stood ready as if prepared to transform. His arms at his side, he closed his eyes and allowed the sun to beat down on his face as the clouds slowly consumed the light into shade. He stared off thinking deeply on the passed few days, the death of his student, the sign of a power beyond that of Super Saiyan, the possibility of changing history.

He pointed his nose up to the sky, feeling the air turn cool as thunder echoed in the distance, the change of climate due to the untimely war caused weather phenomena like this to occur frequently. Blizzards in the tropics, storms in the deserts; no amount of surrounding lightning or thunder could shake him from his thoughts though.

How could he claim to be the only hero left, to wear his father's Gi, if he couldn't even save a single person? Let alone the entire planet that still suffered at the hands of the mechanical monstrosities. And that power he unlocked, it baffled him… though it also drained him, days later and he still felt physically fatigued. It was as if his body couldn't handle its own power, it was a heat of the moment situation, perhaps training to better maintain his Super Saiyan form was the key?

He tightened his prosthetic and gazed down at the broken gauge, still cracked from the battle; other than basic medical care, he'd refused treatment. How could so much power come out only _after_ he'd lost the last vestige of hope for the world? Trunks had Vegeta's blood and Bulma's mind, if he himself couldn't kill the androids than the only other person that could was him.

"Trunks…" He muttered as the rain started falling from the sky, in a slow drizzle at first, refreshing his skin from the desert heat. The rain picked up quickly, turning into a full-fledged hurricane, the wind and lightening turning the desert into a hellish landscape in seconds. His rage got the better of him, feeling it boil he attempted to power up like he did against Seventeen and Eighteen. His golden fury exploded out around him, his Super Saiyan form, while impressive, disappointed him immensely.

He could feel the wall now, the barrier separating him from a higher power, from an ascended state beyond anything he'd ever dreamed. "HAA!" His shout cut through the sky and the clouds dispersing the cumulonimbus immediately, the pillar he stood atop imploded with white-hot Ki energy consuming him in the destruction.

Kara sighed as she flew through the sky, just below the clouds, she donned her new armor and went on the search for her guilt-ridden lover; she only felt exasperated when she noticed the mushroom cloud in the distance, "Oh… jeez."

Landing quietly just outside the blast-zone, she kicked a few rocks across the scorched Earth as the smoke cleared; Gohan was on his knees still in his golden form only, his aura was gone and he'd never looked so vulnerable in her years knowing him.

"I failed him," he announced without turning around, "As his teacher and his friend, I failed him."

She approached slowly, putting a hand on his shoulder, "Don't talk like that…"

"He wasn't ready… I should have known better, trained him harder," he clutched his pants tight in his hands as tears streamed into his lap, "I should've done better."

"We don't live in a normal world, you should know better than most that sometimes heroes don't come home," he looked over his shoulder up at her, into her deep blue eyes as she stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his head pulling him into her waist, "This world is sick; the androids are the cancer and we're the cure…"

She looked him dead in the eyes and wiped a tear from his cheek, "The world needs you now more than ever, so get back up," she yanked him up and dusted him off, "Stretch out your neck, puff up your chest, and endure… so the rest of the world doesn't have to."

…

"Sorry, I was wrong, completely wrong," Bulma couldn't bare to meet eyes with either of her two comrades, "I was misled by a common myth, how could I be so clueless?"

Gohan rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Walk me through this one more time?" he planted his feet and took a seat in a chair at an empty conference table, the room was old and dusty but, private enough to have such a discussion.

Bulma ran her hands through her turquoise hair and took a deep breath letting out a long exhale, "Think about it, if you traveled to the past, that past becomes your future, and your former present becomes the past which can't now be changed by your new future…"

Gohan and Kara gave each other a glance before returning their stupefied expressions back to their head scientist, "Oh for the love of-" she grabbed a marker and approached a nearby white-board, drawing a long line across it in blue, "Think of this line as your whole life, the Saiyan attack, Namek, Freeza, the whole shebang." She continued by circling a single point in the middle of the line, "Say this is when you travel back in time," connecting a line to the circle and diverting away from the original line, she capped the marker and turned back to them, "All you'd be doing is creating an alternate future, one where Goku survives, changing everything drastically but, not at all affecting the original timeline you came from."

"So, what I'm hearing is, all this time we've been banking on absolutely nothing!" Kara shouted and stood from her seat, "We put everything we had into this…"

"I know that, don't you think I know that!? That I've officially lost _everything?!_ "

Kara put her head down in silence as Bulma turned away to shed a tear; it was quiet until a voice cut through it commanding respect, "I want to go anyways."

They snapped their heads towards him, flabbergasted, "What?!"

"Gohan…" Bulma stopped and dropped to her knees in front of him, "Think about this for a second before making any rash decisions, that time machine could be the key to leaving Earth, if you use it for this there's no going back."

He grabbed her hand in his, looking into her eyes, "I wish I could make you understand, but I have to do this. Before just erasing this disgusting future was enough but, now that they killed-" He choked on his own words, "I have to end this my way, and the only people I can ask for help are dead and in the past."

"I'll go too," Kara announced, "I'll make sure to watch his back."

He gave her a short smile, one she could tell was hiding a whole lot of pain but, the determination was over whelming everything else, "Think about this, Bulma, if we do this you'll have access to a future where Trunks is alive and well."

She stood and stepped back, looking back towards the white board, "If we're doing this, we have to do it before I change my mind…"

…

"I told you," Seventeen taunted as he adjusted his new hand, it was identical to his old one only, it wasn't composed of artificial skin like the rest of him was, it was black as though he was wearing a glove, "It fits fine, I'm not human I don't need the aesthetic of human skin."

Eighteen peered over the pod that still remained closed after three long days, they hadn't done much other than search the grounds and update their tools of destruction. Seventeen replaced his optic-censors with more advanced models that not only detect power levels but, also shoot lasers much to his liking. Eighteen refused to augment her body any further, she called it unnatural but, obviously she understood her brother's reasoning, "The updates are almost finished, once they're done, I plan on holding up my end of the bargain."

She narrowed her eyes at the pod, "And you're sure you wanna take the risk?"

"You're the one advocating for him."

"I'm just making sure that you're sure."

Seventeen took his attention from his new hand to put it back onto his sister, he propped his feet up and leaned back, "You saw the scans, he's practically a blank slate, he's only got like three ideas in his head and all of them suck major eggs."

She rolled her eyes, "We can't let him be a slave to Gero's weird programming that's for sure; Son Goku, Dr. Gero, and… birds."

…

Gohan tapped the gauge on his prosthetic wrist, making sure the levels were reading correctly, "You're good to go," Bulma announced as the Saiyan quickly jabbed the air once or twice to flex his arm.

"And it won't break this time?"

She scoffed putting her screwdriver down, "It only short circuited last time because I didn't think the sensors would ever need to read that much power from you," she turned back towards her work bench where she took hold of a capsule in her hand, "I quadrupled their capacity so, problem should be solved."

Kara entered the room wearing her armor and a determined glare, "Are we ready to go?"

"Are you?" Gohan noted.

She closed her eyes and took a breath, "As ready as I'll ever be, let's get going before I get cold feet."

"Right," Bulma pressed her thumb down on the capsule-release tossing it across the room, an explosion of smoke left a fifteen-foot ship in the middle of the garage. It was bright yellow with a glass shell over the top, it only fit two people and didn't have any wings for actual flight. On the side-panel was the number 'One' symbolizing its uniqueness and the word 'Hope!' written in marker underneath, "It isn't pretty, but it'll get you there and back."

"I'm almost excited to see Freeza, last time we met I was too weak and scared to do anything but this time-"

Bulma interrupted him without hesitating, "This time, you'll still do nothing! We can't afford to be messing with the time-line so drastically."

"She's right, just let your dad show up and take care of it like he did before," Kara agreed, still obviously nervous about the trip, Gohan noticed her shaking and reached over, grabbing her hand.

He pulled her chin up to meet his eyes as Bulma turned to fill a box with capsules they may need, "You don't have to come if you don't want to, I can take care of it alone."

"No," she responded quickly, regaining her composure, "I can do this, I'm here for you."

Bulma pressed down on a large button on the side of the machine opening the canopy for them, "The coordinates are set for you to go back to the day Goku returned from Yardrat and then forward to this moment, ideally a few seconds after you leave; no room for surprise attacks from _them_."

Gohan, still holding Kara's hand, walked with her as they gently floated up towards their seats, "Remember, don't do anything crazy, the butterfly effect is still a bitch!"

Gohan gave her a thumbs up as he settled in and closed the canopy, allowing the machine to do its job for him, he watched their brilliant friend below open the retractable ceiling as they levitated up. Slowly, reaching eye-line with the clouds before fading into thin air and being hurtled through time and space in an instant.

…

 **August - Age 764 – Earth**

As the machine materialized from thin air, it plopped itself down onto the sandy ground, dirt, rocks, and flat-lands for dozens of miles in every direction; it was also where Gohan would train Trunks and Kara decades from now. The pod opened as the light shun through, nearly blinding them, it immediately shocked Kara as she floated up out of the pod.

The sky was bright blue without a cloud in sight, the sun was gleaming and yellow, scorching the desert like she'd never seen before, "I feel so good, this air, this light, it's incredible Gohan!"

He tapped the gauge on the machine ensuring they were in the right time and place; "Yep, that would be pre-nuclear-holocaust weather on Earth."

"Even on my home planet, the red-sun never let light like this through our atmosphere," her skin began glowing with an outline of yellow energy as she scanned her hands, stretching her fingers like she'd never used them before, "I feel so incredibly powerful, stronger than you even! Stronger, maybe, than the androids…"

Gohan raised a brow floating up to follow her, "It's temporary so enjoy it while it lasts," he glanced down at his scanner on his arm, "We're a tad early, Freeza is arriving in a few minutes and so am… I."

After podding the time machine and flying west for a moment, they touched down near a few rock formations; Kara took a seat, trying her best to keep her new power under wraps, "So, now we just wait for him to show up?"

Gohan narrowed his eyes and quickly turned up towards the atmosphere, "He's already here…" from the depths of the blue sky came a massive saucer-shaped vessel rocking the very planet with the sound of its engines.

"I think you and your friends are here too," she pointed out at a group of people floating down and hiding between a canyon of rocks, out of sight of the arriving emperor, "Freeza definitely doesn't feel like a threat, then again, neither do your friends."

"Hey, I'm down there too remember; let's go meet Freeza before he tries sending his soldiers to find us," Gohan got to his feet and floated up towards the now landing war-ship.

Kara cleared her throat, "Didn't Bulma say we shouldn't be messing with this time-line like that?" Gohan ignored her, charging a white aura which allowed him to blast-off at beyond the speed of sound, "Hey!" she shouted again following after him.

Massive quantities of pressurized steam poured out from beneath the ship, the landing pads opened up pressing into the rocks and stabilizing it; as the entry swung open, two dozen alien-soldiers dressed in armor filed out in a line on either side so that two singular figures could emerge.

One was short, shorter even than Kara, with paper-white skin and purple features, sporting a mechanical lower-body and replacing the right-side of his head. The other was a massive man, with large horns and armor similar to the soldiers only sporting a cape to go with it, "Alright, spread out and use your scouters to find the strongest ones, bring my son their heads," the larger one ordered.

"Yes sir, King Cold!" they all chanted as they were about to move when Gohan and Kara landed in front of them.

This caught Freeza's attention due to the Gi the Saiyan-man was wearing but, he didn't recognize the man uniformed by it, "Who's the bigger guy?"

Gohan kept his smile as they both touched down, "Freeza's father, don't worry he's much weaker than his son."

Kara exhaled, "I guess I deserved _some_ good news today."

"And who might you be?" Freeza asked, his voice was smooth and confident, as if he never doubted himself a day in his life, "Step aside or be vaporized."

"I was going to say the same but, I have to admit, it's good seeing you again after all this time," Gohan announced stepping forward and taking the conversation into his own hands.

Cold leaned his head down without taking his eyes off the newcomers, "Do you know him?"

Freeza folded his organic arm over the mechanical one, "No, but he does bear the same insipid uniform as the one I came here to exact my revenge on."

"Is that right?" King Cold smiled and waved his soldiers to take them out, stepping forwards and aiming their gauntlet energy-weapons at eye level with the two time-travelers, "Kill them."

"Should you or should I?"

Gohan cracked his neck, "I'll take care of it, you can take it easy, I have a score to settle," his eyes became fierce, like he was about to take twenty-years of anger out on just a small group of people.

"Whatever you say, just don't get cocky," She floated up without changing her posture, levitating twenty or thirty feet away, giving her comrade all the space he'd need.

…

"Who the hell are they?!" a man shouted, the group of fighters were too far away from the invading ship to be heard but, his voice still made their ears ring.

"Relax, Vegeta, whoever it is they're buying us time to think…" A woman responded to him as logically as possible; her hair was done up in a blue afro held back by a red headband. She quickly dusted off her vest and folded her arms, "Does anyone recognize their energies or power levels or whatever?"

Another man stepped up from behind closing all three of his eyes, "One of them seems familiar, at least, a little though he's already stronger than anyone here."

"The fight hasn't even started yet," Vegeta responded tightening his fist at his side, "And there's no way some stranger is stronger than I am; right now, the Namekian and I are the only two people here who can even make Freeza flinch."

"This power…" A young boy, no older than seven or eight years old, took a few steps with his eyes closed, feeling the power flowing off the confrontation, "I feel like I'm sensing my father…"

"Did he get a haircut?" Bulma chided.

"He looks like he's wearing a turtle Gi of some kind, maybe it is my Dad!"

"Gohan…" the shortest man beside him spoke up, fully grown yet still at eye level with the eight-year-old, "Stay focused, I've been sensing your father since we were kids and he's never felt like this before."

…

On the battlefield, soldiers surrounded Gohan on all sides, the leader of the group using the device strapped to his right eye to gauge his power level, "Let's just see how strong you really are!" pressing down on the side of it activated a sensor-display giving the soldier a reading, "This… This can't be right!" Gohan's only response was a proud grin.

"What does it say?"

He choked on his words as the solider stammered back, "I-It's over h-half-a-million!"

Whistling, the Saiyan gave a wide smirk, "That's only cause I'm stationary…" with just a glare, each and every scouter still activated short-circuited, exploding on the faces of their users, "Sorry."

After about a minute of standing and staring, Freeza spoke up with an aggravated tone, "You have your orders."

The lead solider gulped, "Sir, h-his power level is too high, if we try and f-fight him he'll kill us all!"

"Die to him or die to me, your choice."

After carefully considering their options, they all charged with exuberant battle cries, each one prepared to kill the man without mercy. Gohan didn't move an inch but, he did shift from a cocky grin to a more serious expression as the nervous soldiers aimed their weapons.

"Fire!"

They all let loose a barrage of energy attacks, mimicking Ki blasts, each one phased right through the target; and this was no special ability. Although, to the soldiers, it seemed like he was simply an apparition, Freeza and Cold could see him planting his feet and dipping his body from side-to-side. Dodging and weaving around without any real effort. They were surrounding him on all sides though, so as they missed the target, those behind him were slaughtered by their own teammates.

In under a minute they were all dead of their own stupidity, all except for the one that read his power level, he never fired his weapon and was in just the right spot to avoid being blasted. He backed away in shock, fearing for his life when suddenly a ruthless fist plunged its way through his chest, shattering his armor.

"L-Lord Free-za?!"

He pulled his arm back and swatted the air, splattering blood on the ground and drying his hands as the solider collapsed into a heap, bleeding out.

"What a shame," King Cold sighed and rolled his eyes, "Look's like we'll need to pick up a new crew on the way back home."

Gohan chuckled, "Don't worry, you'll be too dead to find a new crew," he never took his eyes from Freeza's, he could never shake the cold stare the tyrant always gave. It haunted him into his late teenage years.

"Apologies," Freeza chuckled, "What was your name again?"

"You don't recognize me? I don't blame you…"

He took a few confident steps towards this bold Earthling, "You are familiar but, I have a reading on the only person I can think of that you resemble and he's light years from here…" he put a finger to his chin, "But, you are quite the power-house, levels over four-million!"

"You knew your soldiers would die but you let them attack anyways?" Gohan asked, not waiting for an answer, "I had almost forgotten how truly evil you really were."

"Past tense?" His eyes widened, "Wait a moment," suddenly he could see it, his eyes, his cheek bones, "You're the brat, the one from-" he stopped himself as Gohan started growing a smile.

"Keep going, you're getting there."

He growled, being led on was not something he enjoyed, "How is it possible for you to have grown so much in such a brief time?" he asked as his metallic tail slapped the ground threateningly.

"Didn't you say it was a Super Saiyan that defeated you?" Cold spoke up, looking down to his son, "No matter who he is, he's nothing."

"His power level is sufficient for a challenge, father; you know I enjoy an appetizer before the main course arrives," Freeza grinned and turned his attention back to the warrior, still standing firm.

He chuckled a bit, "If you're waiting for a Super Saiyan, I'm sure I can help you…" the irony of them being impressed by or afraid of just a regular ascended Saiyan was almost laughable to him now.

Freeza's expression became stoic rather quickly after hearing this, "There is only one Super Saiyan in existence and he's far from a weakling like you," his cybernetics told him very clearly that he couldn't win a fight against this warrior if he went super like his nemesis did. The math wasn't on his side but, while smart he was always quite arrogant, "Bluffing will not get us to turn back, you will simply be the first to suffer for the transgressions of your father."

Gohan frowned, tightening his muscles with just a bit of force, "How about I show you what I mean, it'll make more sense if I do…" clutching his fist, Freeza watched as his energy spiked and a teal-blue flooded his eyes.

"I-Impossible…"

Cold watched his son's horrified expression as he experienced post-traumatic flash backs to the near-death events on Namek; seeing the ruthlessness in the Saiyan's eyes shook him to his core.

His hair flashed bright yellow, a golden hue outlined his entire body as he was slowly consumed by a flaming aura; it wasn't his maximum output but, it was more than enough. He stood in blazing essence and stared out at Freeza whom was still taken aback.

"See?" Gohan muttered.

Freeza closed his eyes, his rage boiling, his power sky-rocketing, his violent purple aura sparking erratically, "No! NO!" he aimed both of his palms outwards at the Saiyan, forming a powerful culmination of energy, "I won't be humiliated twice!"

Gohan raised one hand, gesturing with his fingers and inviting Freeza to attack without saying a word, "AGH!" he screeched impatiently and fired before he was even done collecting his power.

Kara didn't even flinch as the beam struck Gohan and exploded on contact, debris and smoke swept through the desert; practically shaking the entire continent they stood on.

Once the blistering sound of the explosion died down, Cold leaned over to his son, "You should be more careful, had you destroyed the planet we would have had to fly ourselves all the way home."

"I have it handled, Father."

Only a few seconds later, the smoke cleared and within it stood the golden warrior without a single scrape; his Ki energy creating a bio-electric aura protecting himself and his clothes, he didn't even have a scuff on his boots.

Cold's eyes widened, unfolding his arms in surprise; Freeza's jaw was wired shut, grinding his teeth in relentless rage, "You can see my power level with that fancy eye of yours, you know you have no chance."

Freeza stomped his foot into the ground, "You have no idea with whom you are dealing, you insolent worm!" He fired off another quick beam from his finger, meant to pierce not explode.

Instead of dodging or deflecting it, he allowed it to hit him dead in the center of the chest; a lethal blow had it made even a scratch on Gohan's body.

Freeza stepped back in horror, it was happening all over again, another Saiyan was fulfilling his ancestor's greatest nightmare; the warning his great-grandfather, Chilled, passed down was coming to a reality.

Without a word, Gohan vanished from sight, faster than his sensors could track, faster than anyone could track; but the blonde woman standing far back had followed him with her eyes using little effort.

"What?!" He turned around on a dime, meeting Gohan's fist with his abdomen; he wasn't even expecting it, he didn't even feel the attack until he was knocked backwards, skidding across the dirt landing at the feet of Kara.

"Hiya," she announced in a stoic monotone before casually punting him in the right cheek, sending the galactic warlord skipping across the desert sand, tumbling to his father's feet.

Freeza stood up and prepared to attack but, his father placed a cold hand on his shoulder, pushing him back as he stepped forwards, "I think we've seen quite enough, any more embarrassment on our part will show weakness."

"B-But, Father, in your current state you can't defeat them, and you haven't transformed since-"

He was silenced by a glare that was ignited by a purple flame in the king's eyes, a purple hue of spiritual energy slowly wrapped across his body as Gohan examined, slipping into a fighting stance. Freeza stepped back and trembled as his father came forwards to finish what he couldn't.

Gohan felt the energy rising in his newest challenger, he never got to see King Cold reveal his true nature, his father wasn't as kindhearted as he was. A fair fight and the winner takes the spoils, Earth or Gohan's pride, either way this plays out, it wont be pretty.

…

I realized I'd all but finished this chapter and left it to rot away in my computer, so I figured I'd put the finishing touches on it and send it out. No clue when the next chapter will be but, I wouldn't hold my breath.


End file.
